London Bridge Is Falling Down
by Sapphire Smoke
Summary: When everything seems to be going wrong, Sophie finds a little bit of right somewhere unexpected. •Parker/Sophie•
1. Manhandling

**Title:** London Bridge Is Falling Down  
**Author:** Sapphire Smoke  
**Fandom:** Leverage  
**Rating:** M  
**Pairing:** Parker/Sophie (some Nate/Sophie too, and Parker/OC)  
**Prompt:** _Sophie/Parker - burning bridges_ over at InsaneJournal's community "promptsrus"  
**AU:** Set two years into the future (from the end of season one). Nate and Sophie have been dating for awhile, and now live together, and team has moved back to LA  
**Summary:** When everything seems to be going wrong, Sophie finds a little bit of right somewhere unexpected.  
**A/N:** There's hella angst, be forewarned. Don't worry too much though, I tend to have this sickness with happy endings...

**CHAPTER ONE****  
Manhandling**

"Why do you _always_ do this?!"

"Because I care about you!… You... You bloody fucking… _tosser!"_ came the response, having trouble even falling from Sophie's lips. Chest heaving, wet trails down her cheeks, and her chest was squeezing so hard she could barely breathe. Her heart was racing, terrified at the result of yet another fight between her and the man she loves, but yet at the same time it seemed to routine that even contemplating the ending of the relationship due to that would probably seem a bit mad anyway.

She didn't understand why he never realized that she got on to him because she cares; she _worries_ for Christ's sake. He has no idea what it's like to lie in bed at night and worry if he's even going to come home, or end up with his car smashed into a tree because he was too hammered to see straight. All she can do is tell him, cry, hope that for once he might actually understand what this is doing to her, how much it bloody _hurts_ inside, and maybe just for once push down the urge to go to another sleezy run down bar and pick up a drink.

Why can't he just be happy here, with her? What's so wrong with here?

"Don't you see how much this _kills_ me, Nathan?!" Sophie screamed at him, trying so desperately for him to just see. But he shook his head and took off his coat, hanging it on the rack before kicking off his shoes.

"Oh, stop being so _dramatic_, Sophie," he slurred a bit, and waved his hand like he was dismissing her emotions on the subject. He held out his hand to her, "Just come to bed."

"No!" Sophie exclaimed, backing away from his outstretched hand. She wiped furiously at her tears and repeated, "No, I won't just _come to bed _with you like nothing's wrong!" She paused, looking at him infuriated. "In fact, _you're _not coming to bed at all! You're sleeping on the bloody couch tonight!"

Then she turned, retreating into their bedroom and slamming the door so hard she's sure she heard it splinter… again. A few more of those and the damned thing might fall off its hinges. But it didn't matter. None of it ever _really_ mattered, did it? She sat down heavily on the bed and laid down, grabbing his pillow and burying her face in it to silence her sobs.

But there was a click as the door opened, and Sophie let out a frustrated half scream into the pillow before throwing it across the room and sitting up to look at Nate, who had invaded the room. "Did you not hear what I said?!" she yelled at him, looking at him like he's clearly suicidal to walk in there.

"It's _my_ room," Nate tells her, anger on his face now from being presumably kicked out.

"It's mine too!" Sophie screamed, just wanting him to leave. She needed to be alone. "And I want you out!"

"It was mine first, so if you're so _content_ on not sleeping with me tonight, then you can find somewhere else to sleep then," Nate told her and started undressing to get into his nightclothes. Sophie just looked at him like she couldn't believe he just said that to her.

"So what, then? You move me in, 'what's yours in mine', that's what you said, isn't it? And now what? It's all _rubbish?!"_ Sophie screeched, probably a few decibels louder than what was relatively safe for human hearing.

Nate just shrugged, like that was that. Sophie screamed again, and started picking up the pillows from off the bed and throwing them at him. The first hit him in the head and he turned in surprise before putting up his arms to shield himself from the others. "You _wanker!"_ Sophie yelled at him before picking up the alarm clock, the very big and _solid_ alarm clock, and throwing it at him. Nate ducked just in time before it smashed against the wall, denting the plaster a bit. "Is that all you think of me, then?! Just some whore in your bed that you can kick out whenever you feel like it?!"

"You said it," Nate said under his breath, but Sophie heard him and screamed again before taking off her heels and throwing those at him too.

"Stop throwing shit at me, damnit woman!" Nate yelled finally, getting sick of all the blunt objects being thrown in his general vicinity, some with amazing accuracy.

"I hate you!" she screamed, before picking up the lamp. But Nate rushed over and held her hands; making her drop the lamp and having it shatter against the wood floor. "Let me go!" Sophie yelled at him, struggling against him. She tried to pound her fists against his chest but didn't have the leverage to be able to have enough force for it to hurt. "Let me _go_, Nathan!"

"Calm down!" he yelled at her, but she didn't. She was just so bloody sick of all of this, it was one day after another, the same shit to the same tune. All she wanted was for him to get it, to love her and appreciate her but all he did was treat her like she was nothing more than a criminal that he took in under the goodness of his heart, like she _owed_ him something.

"Get off of me!" she yelled, still trying to hit him. Make him feel something at least, but she didn't get the chance. He wrapped her in a bear hug, stilling her arms to her side as she tried to thrash out of his grasp, calling him every name in the book and then some as he picked her up. "PUT ME DOWN _RIGHT NOW!"_

"So you can hit me?" he asked with an angry laugh. "I don't think so." Then he started carrying her to the door, and as he got to the threshold she used her weight to plant her feet on the ground and slam him into it, making his groan in pain, but he didn't let go of her. "Fuck, Sophie! _Goddamnit!"_

Then she was out of his grasp, thrown to the floor in the living room before he slammed the bedroom door behind him. Angrily she got to her feet and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge, he was standing in front of it. She banged on it with her fists, furious. "Let me in, Nathan!"

"No, you need to calm the fuck down," came the reply on the other side of the door. "Just sleep on the damn couch."

"I am not your _whore_, you bloody prick! Now let me in!" Sophie screamed at him, refusing to be treated like this wasn't her home too. It was. She bloody lived here, she slept in that damn bed, and she was not… she was _not_ going to be thrown out here like this is all her fault!

"No!"

Sophie screamed again, beat on the door until her fists were red and raw, cursing up a storm until she finally collapsed from exhaustion onto the floor, and just cried. "I hate you, " she whispered through her tears, barely audible. She knew he couldn't hear her, but like it even mattered. Never did, anyway.

She couldn't stay here; she didn't want to do what he wanted her to. Sleep on the couch like nothing better than a bitch. She got to her feet finally and grabbed her purse, tears still flowing, and tried to find her shoes. But she remembered she threw them at him in there, and all of her others were in the bedroom as well. "Bloody brilliant," she scolded herself, but not having shoes wasn't going to stop her from leaving. She didn't need them to walk, after all.

Sophie slammed the door as hard as she could as she left the house, and just started walking down the street. She didn't want to take the car, she knew Nate had Hardison put GPS trackers in all of them, and she didn't want him to find her. Wanted him to worry for once, though she knew he never would.

Six blocks. Her feet were starting to hurt. The tiny pebbled in the street would dig into her feet and she knew she was going to have to figure out somewhere to go… but nowhere was close. No Eliot, no Hardison, no Parker, and not even any hotels. She finally just collapsed on the side of the road, sitting on the curb and just cried. There was nothing left else to do.

Headlights blinded her as a car pulled around the corner, and Sophie shielded her eyes from the brightness. But instead of going on, the car slowed down and stopped where she sat. She got up, trying to see who it was, but the windows were tinted. It rolled down slowly and a man stuck his head out, "Need a ride, miss?"

"What?" Sophie asked, not even seeming to comprehend the question. She looked at him; he was an older gentleman, maybe in his fifties. He looked nice enough, but Sophie suddenly had a bad feeling run down to the base of her spine. She knew better than to get in a car with just anyone, anyway.

"No, thank you," she tells him, wrapping her arms around herself, backing up a few steps.

"Come on, it's freezing. Where are your shoes?" he asked her, looking at her feet.

"I just… lost them, is all," she tells him, backing up a few more steps, before turning to walk away. But then he opens his car door, and steps out.

"A pretty thing like you shouldn't be walking alone out here, not at this time of night," he says with a smile that Sophie finds in no way comforting, and comes closer to her. She started to get terrified, and grasped at her purse… only to only realize that she had left her gun at the house. That was her one protection, and she stupidly left it at the house.

"I'm fine, thank you," is all Sophie says before briskly walking away, hoping to every God there is that he would just let her go. That he really was a nice man, just seemed a bit creepy with the nature of the meeting. But then he grabbed her arm.

"Come on, get in," he tells her, a bit more forcefully, pulling her a bit.

"Get off of me!" she yells, trying to jerk her arm away, but can't because of the grasp he has on it. "Let me go!" She couldn't deal with this now, not after everything that had happened. This just _couldn't_ be happening to her right now.

She was so fucking scared.

"I said _come on_," he tells her, louder now, the nice tone out of his voice. His grip tightens and she winces; it hurts.

"Stop!" she screams, but then suddenly is thrown back against the pavement as someone comes out of bloody nowhere and elbows him in the back of the head. She lay there on the ground, stunned as she looked up to see her rescuer.

"_Parker?"_

But Parker doesn't answer, she's too busy kicking the shit out of the man from the car. Sophie blinks, not even finding the scene before her _real_. Where the hell did Parker come from? She doesn't even live around here!

But with a knee to the gut the man finally falls to the ground, slumping over and groaning in pain. She knelt down next to him and clocked him one of the back of the head, knocking him out. "Dick," she said to him as she rose to her feet and then looked down at Sophie, who was trying to get herself off the ground.

Parker held out her hand and pulled her up, only to look at her and exclaim, "Man, you look like _shit."_

**TBC…**


	2. Fairytales

**CHAPTER TWO****  
Fairytales**

Sophie doesn't care that Parker just told her she looks like shit. She doesn't even care where she came from, or why she was even around this area in the first place. All she cares about is the fact that Parker just saved her from god knows what; a kidnapper? A rapist? A murderer? And so her emotions get the better of her because of all the horrible stuff that had happened to her today, and she starts crying and basically throws herself on Parker, wrapping her arms around her, thanking to whoever is listening that Parker has the uncanny ability to just pop in out of nowhere.

"Whoa," Parker said, blinking and retaining her footing so they don't both fall over. "Um…" she starts, obviously feeling uncomfortable from the way Sophie just basically pelted herself at her. She wrapped her arms around the other woman and patted her on the back awkwardly, attempting to comfort the weeping mess that was her co-worker at the moment. "There, there?" she says, clearly not sure if that's what she's supposed to be saying. "Stop crying, please."

"God, Parker," is all Sophie gets out through her tears, squeezing the other woman half to death, which makes Parker utter out a 'umphh' sound from the sudden lack of oxygen. She starts patting Sophie on the back harder, trying to let her know she can't breathe.

"Oh, sorry," Sophie says through her tears as she loosens her grip, and Parker sucks in some air. She's still crying, lying her head on Parker's shoulder, not wanting to let her go just because she's something familiar, something safe at the moment.

She could have been_ killed_.

"Sophie?" Parker asks, really uncomfortable from the sudden touchy-feelyness that Sophie had started. "The bad guy is not going to hurt you now, can you maybe get off of me?" She paused to add, "Please," because after all, Sophie was crying and it might be completely insensitive to not, and she was trying to do better with that.

Sophie didn't want to let go of her, she really didn't, but she knew Parker was never big on personal contact. She lets go, stepping back a few steps before continuing her crying into her hands. She just couldn't stop it; she was still so scared, still so upset. It was all Nate's fault, if he didn't… if he didn't… she could be _dead_.

"Where are your shoes?" Parker asks her then, looking at Sophie's bare feet. Sophie just waves her hand and starts saying something inaudible due to how much she was crying, and Parker looks confused. She's standing there, not knowing what to do with this woman in front of her, because after all, Sophie had always been so strong. So she bends down and takes off her sneakers before holding them out to the grifter.

Sophie bawls harder at the gesture.

"I think they'll fit," Parker tells her, thinking that may be why Sophie started crying more. But Sophie keeps crying, looking at her in a way that Parker doesn't understand, so she tries again, gesturing more with the shoes at her. "They're comfortable and… blue. If I had another color I'd give them to you if you don't like blue, but I don't, so this is all I have. It's my favorite pair, so… take them?" She just wanted Sophie to stop crying.

Sophie seems to even cry _more_ at that, but takes the shoes, saying something that was still inaudible to Parker. She bends down and puts them on, but as she stands back up she looks at Parker and just basically jumps on her again, wrapping her arms around her.

"Oof," Parker exclaims at the contact, and almost falls this time. "Sophie?" she asks again, and Sophie knows she has no idea what's going on, and she knows she probably looks wretched, but she just can't stop crying. "Do you need a ride home?"

Sophie shakes her head and holds on to Parker tighter. "Okay…" Parker starts, not knowing what to do. She pets her hair a bit like a child would pet a cat and is silent for a moment before asking, "Do you need to sleep over my house?"

Sophie nods, and lets out this strangled sob that Parker is sure kind of sounds like a dying animal, but she carefully untangles the brunette from her before grabbing a hold of her hand, just so Sophie is still holding on to her since she seemed like she needed to. Parker tries to give her a small comforting smile, but it still doesn't seem to help so she sighs a bit and starts leading her to her car.

When they get to Parker's apartment, Sophie's mostly calmed down. She's silent though, and just kind of is led by Parker up the stairs and through the door in a trance like state. Parker kind of places her on her couch, guiding her down a bit with her hand since Sophie didn't seem to moving the right way, or at all. When Sophie sits she just stares at the wall, silent tears still falling from her eyes.

She kept thinking about what could have happened if Parker hadn't have been there. Horrible pictures invaded her mind; being locked in some room, beaten, raped, murdered. That might have been what finally stopped her crying: the heart clenching fear had struck her completely silent.

Parker sat next to her on the couch, and just looked at her like she didn't know what to do. Sophie didn't seem to be moving, or really even blinking. She waved her hand in front of her face, "Are you broken?"

Sophie blinked at the sudden intrusion to her vision and scoffed slightly, like it was amusing but at the same time completely _not_ and replied in a horse voice, "I think so." She still stared at the wall, not wanting to look at Parker. She didn't want to have to explain.

"How do I fix you?" Parker asked, and kind of poked at her like she was a wind up toy that just wouldn't wind up anymore, and needed to prod at it. Sophie flinched a bit, and Parker took away her hand like she had burned it. "Did I hurt you?" she asks, feeling bad.

"No," Sophie says automatically, but then snaps out of her daze and looks at Parker and says a bit softer, with a little more life in her voice but not much. "No… you just, surprised me, is all."

"From a poke?" Parker asks, and Sophie just brings her legs up on the couch, knees to chin and wraps her arms around herself. The touching thing apparently wasn't working for her right now either. Not with all those images in her head.

But Sophie doesn't want to offend Parker, if that was even possible. She looks at her, and finally says the audible words, though her voice still broke a bit, "Thank you…"

"For what?" Parker asks, not understanding in the least what she did for Sophie. Someone was hurting her and she stopped him, it's just what you're supposed to do. It wasn't a choice.

"For saving me," Sophie whispers, and her hand clenched onto her pant leg and she leaned her head against her knees, looking at Parker, small tears still falling from her eyes. Leave it to be Parker, out of everyone, to save her. Nate… she closed her eyes, she didn't even want to think about him right now.

"He was hurting you," is all Parker says, looking at her like that isn't a reason for Sophie to show gratitude. "Anyone would save you."

Sophie let out a bitter laugh, and shook her head. "No," she says. "Not everyone would, Parker. Most people like to not get involved with… anything." She was speaking generally, because usually when people hear a scream outside of their house they make a point not to get involved so they don't end up being a casualty, but she still couldn't help thinking about Nate when she said it.

"Yes they would," Parker tells her, like she's being absurd. "You're a pretty girl like in the fairytales. The daises, or whatever."

"Damsels," Sophie corrects automatically, then blinks and looks back at Parker. Did she just refer her to a princess in a fairytale?

"Yeah, those," Parker says, nodding a bit. "When they cry out for help, everyone comes."

"Oh, Parker…" Sophie says and sniffs as she wipes away a tear and looks at her sadly. "Fairytales aren't real."

Parker smiles at her, like she's the one that's being silly and replies, "If they aren't, then why did I come in my white car, which is kind of like a horse only it has wheels instead of legs, and it also doesn't eat that much hay… or any in fact." She stops and looks confused for a minute at her own rambling, but then says. "And then I made the bad guy stop hurting you." There was a pause before she continued, "Fairytales are real, but they make the story for us. They come into real life and fix things."

Parker smiles at her before getting up to go over to the closet. Sophie can do nothing else but just stare at her, wondering if she's shocked because of how naïve Parker is, or how sweet she is. Whatever it was, Parker didn't give her much of a chance to think, just took out some blankets and a pillow and handed them to her.

"The blanket is green, since you seemed to cry at blue," she tells her.

"Thank you," Sophie whispers, and takes them. She holds them close to her chest and looks up at Parker, and can't help but think that maybe if fairytales are real, then maybe she's her fairy godmother. They always seemed a bit crazy anyway, but in a good way.

Parker stands there for a minute, looking like she doesn't know what to do. Then she bends down in a way like she shouldn't know if she should even do what she's about to do, stopping herself half way through before she continues, and kisses the top of Sophie's head. "Don't cry anymore, please. The bad stuff is done now."

Sophie closes her eyes from the gesture, but when she opens them, Parker's gone. Sophie takes a deep breath and rises to her feet to turn off the light, and before she goes to bed, she wipes away the last of her tears and wishes that Parker was right, that all the bad stuff was done now… but she knew it never would be.

**TBC…**


	3. Secrets

**CHAPTER THREE****  
Secrets**

When Sophie woke, at first she couldn't remember where she was. She looked around in her half asleep state confused, before all the memories of yesterday came flashing back to her, and she almost choked on her own breath because she took such a sharp inhale. She coughed a bit, then closed her eyes and willed herself to calm down. It was over now, that was yesterday. This is today. Nothing happened.

But something did happen, even if it wasn't the worst thing that could have possibly happen. First the love of her life treats her like she's nothing better than a tramp, and then that man… and then Parker.

Parker.

Sophie sat up on the couch, pushing back the hair from her face, and turned her head to look at Parker's door. Where had Parker come from? Why was she even over in that area? It wasn't the best neighborhood in the world, and while Sophie and Nate resided in the good part of town, there only seemed to be a block where it switched from good... to really bad. There was no medium in that area. It was kind of like some weird alternate universe line that you cross once you passed 42nd street.

Sophie chewed on her bottom lip a bite before shivering, picking up the green blanket Parker had given her and wrapping it around herself. It was Los Angeles, but even December in Los Angeles wasn't exactly warm. She rose to her feet, then realized she still had Parker's shoes on from last night; she had fallen asleep with them on. She sat back down and carefully took them off, placing them by the side of the couch before getting up again and bringing herself over to Parker's door. She knocked, but didn't hear and answer so she turned the door handle and opened the door slowly.

Parker was sprawled out on her bed in a star shape, dressed in only her undergarments, head to the side, snoring lightly. Sophie leaned against the threshold of the door and couldn't help the smirk that played at her lips. The way Parker slept was so… _Parker_. Random, unorthodox, and yet at the same time… almost like a child. Parker moaned a bit in her sleep, then mumbled something Sophie couldn't make out before rolling over… and off of the bed.

Sophie put her hand over her mouth in shock as Parker hit the floor, awakening her rudely. Sophie snorted a bit behind her hand, trying not to laugh. Parker swore loudly and sleepily picked herself up, before turning around and looking at Sophie, who was still trying so hard not to keep replaying that over and over in her head. That was almost priceless.

"Morning," Parker replied a bit grumpily before crawling back into her own bed and under the covers. She didn't say anything about Sophie seeing her do that, didn't even seem embarrassed either. She also apparently didn't want it to be morning, since she climbed back into bed.

"Has that…" Sophie started to say, then giggled a bit. "Sorry, but does that… happen a lot?" She had to ask, the way Parker didn't even seem surprised by it.

"Every morning," Parker replies, then yawns big before snuggling under her covers. She blinks a bit, looking at Sophie still standing there, blanket around her. "It's cold," she tells her, like it's supposed to mean something other than exactly what she said.

"It's December," Sophie replies, and pulls the blanket around her tighter. "Least it doesn't snow." A pause as she looks at her, "Why don't you have the heat on?"

"I don't like paying for it," Parker tells her.

"But you have millions of dollars," Sophie says, like she can't believe Parker can be frugal when she's rich. It just doesn't compute in Sophie's brain.

"It's cold," Parker repeats, and this time holds the covers out for Sophie, not commenting on the money. Sophie realizes that's what she was implying the first time she said that, and walked over to the bed and crawled in it.

"Thanks."

"Yeah," Parker says, then shivers a bit. "I don't like winter. Everything's dark."

Sophie pulled the covers up around her chin and looked over at the blonde. "Are you afraid of the dark?" she asks her, with a bit of a teasing grin.

"No," Parker says, and brings one of her hands up to her mouth to chew on a fingernail. "It's just sad; the grass gets icky, the trees are naked."

"Don't bite your nails, Parker," Sophie tells her, and swats at Parker's hand. Parker looks disgruntled, but relents and puts her hand down. She rolls over to face Sophie and squishes her face to the side a bit, as if thinking. "Why were you walking last night?" Parker finally asks.

Sophie looks down, and starts picking at the blanket a bit. She really didn't want to talk about it. As far as the whole team knew, Nate and Sophie's relationship was picture perfect. The white picket fence kind, minus the actually fence, and usually the kids that come along with it. While they publicly had their differences in the beginning, now they hid them behind closed doors. "Just a bad night," she replies.

"Oh," Parker says, and leaves it. She knew Sophie didn't want her to pry.

"Why were you out there anyway?" Sophie asks, finally needing to know. It was an odd place for her to be.

"Someone I know lives over there," Parker tells her, and Sophie's eyes widened. Parker had a friend, really? Not that it wasn't possible, but… well, no, it really wasn't all that possible. Parker's always been a loner, and the Leverage Team was the closest she had to any kind of real relationship with other people… or so she thought, anyway.

"Who?"

"Just some guy," Parker says, and shrugs. But Sophie isn't just about to let _that _go. A guy? Parker knows a guy? Parker went over a guys _house?_

Sophie props herself up on one elbow, looking down at the thief with a bit of a smile playing at her lips. "A guy?" she asks, clearly interested. "A guy friend or boyfriend?"

Parker shrugs again, "Just a guy."

"Oh come on, Parker," Sophie prods, and nudges her a bit. Parker rolled her eyes but smirked a bit, her tongue to her teeth.

"Someone I have sex with, okay?" she answers finally, but doesn't seem too mad for Sophie sticking her nose in where it really didn't belong. Though they had all worked together for three years now, they still weren't exactly the tightest of friends.

"Thought you didn't want to date anymore after Hardison," Sophie asks, surprised that she is again. Parker was absolutely devastated last year when that didn't work out as well as she expected it to, and made a very public vow of, 'men are mean, I'm becoming a lesbian' after that. Hardison and her have then since made up, and are actually very close friends now, finding that their relationship was better that way.

"I didn't say I didn't want to date anymore," Parker says, looking at her confused. Maybe she didn't remember. "And me and Patrick aren't dating, we're fucking. There's a difference." She paused, and looked confused for a minute. "I think."

"Don't use that word," Sophie scolds her. She never liked that word for what's supposed to be an act of love. Though in this case, it didn't seem like Parker liked this guy for more than just the sum of his body mass and how well he could use it, apparently. "And I thought you were a lesbian now."

Parker giggles. "For a little while," she tells her, then shrugs. "He was pretty," is all she offers to her, like that explained her rapidly changing sexuality.

"I bet he is," Sophie says, and smirks before sitting up a little in bed. "Come on, let's have breakfast."

Parker makes this sound like she disapproves of anything other then bed, but reluctantly sits up. "It's cold," she says again.

"Then we're going to turn on the heat," Sophie tells her, and gets out of bed. Parker makes another noise like she's not happy with that plan either, but doesn't tell her no. Sophie is a guest after all, and it's rude to just let your guests have frozen toes. Different when you're alone.

When Parker reluctantly goes over to the thermostat, Sophie sighs a bit and picks at her fingernails. Hearing about Parker and her new almost-boyfriend was making her feel a bit sad about what her and Nate are going through at the moment. She missed when it was good… when Nate was sober. He was sober for six months, and Sophie was so proud of him. But then it started back all over again, though it was more secret this time. He was never drinking at work, never around the others, so Sophie was apparently the only one who was let in on his private hell… and now hers. It seemed like everything with her and Nate now was just one big lie, one big secret after another.

When they both go into the kitchen, Sophie sits down at her dining room table as Parker rummages through her fridge. "Leftover Chinese," is all she offers her. Sophie blinks.

"Are you serious?"

"I don't cook," Parker tells her, and looks over her shoulder. "Got fortune cookies if you want. Hardison told me that for breakfast, if you put them in milk, they're much more acceptable, but I still don't get it."

Sophie let out a breath and then chuckled a bit as she got up. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Parker asks her.

"To get some real food," Sophie tells her with a smile and grabs her coat, then looks down at her feet, remembering something. "Oh," she says, a bit embarrassed. "Can I borrow some shoes?"

**TBC…**


	4. Concealed Pains Of Domestic Life

**CHAPTER FOUR  
Concealed Pains Of Domestic Life**

After breakfast, Parker dropped Sophie back off at her house. It was the last place Sophie wanted to be right now, but she didn't want Parker to know that. She had already screwed up by telling Parker she didn't want to go home last night, and she was so determined to have everyone think that absolutely nothing was wrong with her life that she was willing to take the forthcoming abuse just to convey a false image.

She looked back as Parker drove off, waving a bit and forcing a smile. Then she took a shaky breath and looked at her house, already having a bad feeling about going back in there. But she took one hesitant step forward, and then another, before she was finally at the door. Turing the handle, she entered into the back hall, through the kitchen, to finally see Nate in the living room.

Nate looked up, drink already in hand, Sophie just sighed heavily and threw her purse on the end table before crossing her arms over her chest and looking at him. "What's this, then?"

Nate took another sip and said in a raspy voice, "I didn't know where you were."

Sophie scoffed and looked at him like he was mad for even suggesting he cared, and responded, "Don't blame your addiction on me, Nate."

Nate didn't say anything, just raised his eyebrows and took another sip that seemed over dramatisized for Sophie. Sophie just shook her head and held on to herself tighter, not believing what was in front of her. After all she went through yesterday, she had to come home to this? Already?

"You almost never saw me again," she told him finally, her voice breaking a bit. She wanted him to care, to comfort her. But yet at the same time she didn't even want to tell him either, because then she would have to relive it.

"You would have come back," Nate says simply, like that's what she was meaning. "You always do."

"No!" Sophie exclaimed, frustrated. "That's not… that's_ not_…" but she could get it out, she was starting to feel like she was going to cry again and that was the last thing she wanted to do right now. All she did yesterday was cry. It's a wonder she didn't shrink two dress sizes from losing most of her water weight.

"It's too early for the drama, Sophie. Just sit down," Nate says, and grabs the remote for the television. But Sophie smacks it out of his hand, making him look up at her annoyed. "What the hell could possibly be wrong _now?"_

"Will you just bloody listen to me for once!" Sophie cried, her breath shuddering a bit as she inhaled. "Please!" Her bottom lip starts to tremble, and she bites on it to keep it from doing so. She really didn't want to cry, especially not even in front of him right now. She just wanted him to listen, sweep her into his arms and tell her everything's going to be okay.

But that wasn't going to happen.

"What?" Nate said, exasperated, putting down his drink of the coffee table and looking at her like this better be important for interrupting him. Sophie just stared at him like she couldn't believe how he was acting, but it would have really been more foolish for her to expect anything else.

"S-Someone… they…" she starts, shaking a bit and holding on to herself tighter. She couldn't even bring herself to say it.

"What? Stole the car or something? I'll buy you a new one," Nate says and turns back to get the remote, like that was that. Dismissing her. Buying her stuff just so she'd shut up.

"I could have almost gotten_ raped_ last night, you bloody bastard!" Sophie cries out finally, slapping the remote out of his hand again and screeching a bit. Nate blinks and looks at her for a moment, almost like he's in shock from the revelation, but then he just shakes his head.

"Sophie, you don't have to make stuff up to try to con me into paying attention to you. I'm paying attention now, aren't I? Jesus. I already know you'd shoot anyone who'd be stupid enough to try."

Sophie started crying then, not even knowing what to do. Of course Nate didn't believe her, of_ course_. She put her hand over her face as the tears started flowing, and Nate just rolled her eyes at her display, thinking she's lying about the whole thing. She started to get angry again, just infuriated because that was one of the scariest times of her life and she was trying to confide in him… and he thought she was lying.

"I didn't have my fucking gun!" Sophie yells and grabs her purse off the end table to turn it over and dump the contents all over him. Nate let out a sound of protest before she threw her purse across the room. "If Parker hasn't of been there I would have died! And you… and your just going to sit there? _Are you bloody kidding me?!"_

Nate sighed heavily and looked at her. "Just stop, okay? I get it. I'm paying attention."

"Fuck you!" Sophie screamed. "Are you telling me that my own man won't even protect me?! That I had to run to Parker when things go bad now_, is that it?"_

"Parker's a lesbian now, sure she wouldn't mind," Nate said with a bit of an amused laugh, like Parker's sexuality was a joke, and that Parker wanting Sophie would be an even more amusing joke on her behalf. That this entire thing was just one big joke.

Sophie slapped him then, right across the face so hard that the sound seemed to echo across the room. But before she knew what was happening, he was up, retaliating, grabbing her by the throat automatically before throwing her heavily into the far wall. Sophie coughed and put her hand to her neck as her knees gave out underneath her and she slumped to the ground.

"Don't put your hands on me," Nate told her dangerously, and Sophie just lay for a moment, staring at him like she didn't even know who he was anymore. It wasn't the first time, so she was hardly surprised by it, but it was usually when he was far too trashed to even see straight, and from the looks of it he had only just started drinking.

She rubbed her throat in silence for a little bit, it feeling like his hand was still on it. She coughed again and got to her feet before rubbing her temple, where her face had slammed into the wall. She was so sick of this, she was so sick of all of this. Nate didn't have any right to treat her this way! The bastard acts like she's good for nothing… and she was just sick of it.

So she opened the end table drawer, took out her gun, and pointed it at him.

Nate's eyes went wide. "Sophie…" he warned gently, putting up his hands.

"You fucking bastard," she told him, a dangerous look in her own eyes now. "I think its you that shouldn't put your hands on me anymore."

"Sophie, calm down…"

Sophie cocked the gun, making Nate look terrified for a second. Sophie smiled a bit inwardly. Good, it was his turn to be scared for a minute. Not like she would ever really shoot him, but it emphasized her point very well, and made him listen at least.

"I had the worst night of my life last night," she told him with a low voice, too angry to even yell anymore. It was that sort of calm anger, the ones children always fear with their mother because it means she's really, really angry. "I had some guy try to drag me into his car, I had you treat me like a whore, I cried all over Parker. And now you think you're going to hit me? Is_ that_ it, Nate?"

"No," he said automatically, his voice softer. "Come on, Sophie. I'm sorry. It was just a reaction, I didn't mean to hurt you…"

"Liar," she told him, and straightened her arms a bit more, aiming at his chest. Nate was starting to get desperate, and Sophie could see him start to sweat a bit.

"Sophie, baby… I love you. Okay? I'm sorry. I'll have Hardison find this guy if you want, and then we can make him pay for trying to do that to you. Will that make you feel better?" Nate still had his hands up, but was trying to slowly coax his way over to Sophie.

Sophie didn't care about that guy, not anymore anyway. He wasn't what mattered right now, but when Nate said the words 'I love you', that he hadn't said to her in so long, her fact softened a bit and her arms slacked only a tad, but she still had it pointed at him.

"Are you okay? I'll kill him for hurting you, I promise," Nate said, and Sophie's bottom lip trembled, her arms slacking a bit more. That's all she wanted to hear, that Nate cared and that he wanted to do something about it. "I love you, Sophie. I won't let him hurt you again."

Sophie put down the gun then and started to cry. Nate wrapped his arms around her, and slowly coaxed the gun out of her hand to lay it back on top of the end table. Sophie threw her arms around him and just bawled, her hands holding onto his shirt like she knew that this moment wouldn't last, and that it would just be hell again tomorrow… because it would.

"Shh…" Nate hushed her and ran his fingers through her hair. "Hey, it'll be okay, alright? I love you."

It was always like this though, wasn't it? After every time that he hits her and she takes drastic measures to retaliate, he's always sorry. He always loves her then. The only time it lasted longer than a day was that time she stabbed him in the leg with a butter knife and he walked with a limp for a week. He told the team a dog bit him. Eliot made fun of him for awhile after that.

She doesn't know how she got stuck in this lifestyle, especially with Nate. She loves him so much, but all she can do is really hope that one day he'll realize what he has and loves her back just as much, and then maybe for once they can be finally happy together.

**TBC…**


	5. Torn In Half

**CHAPTER FIVE  
Torn In Half**

Just another day at the office.

Hardison was fooling around on his computer, playing some game when he was supposed to be finding clients, only pulling the screen back up when Nate wasn't around to see it. Eliot was trying to explain to Parker the different kind of fighting styles with knives, only she was more interested in actually _playing_ with the knives than learning techniques, and when she throws one at the wall to lodge it in there and it almost hits Nate instead, Nate blows up and tells them that knives are now on the list of things that are banned in the office.

Along with bubble gum and toothpicks. You really don't want to know.

Sophie sighed heavily and walked into the bathroom so she could be alone for a minute. When she closed the door, her hand clutched her ribs, grimacing in pain. The wall probably fractured one this time, though it shouldn't be a surprise. It always tended to be that side that she ended up getting hurt on, no wonder it finally cracked.

She took a deep breath and tried to control the pain, only be able to do so in here. She didn't want the rest of the team to know. She looked in the mirror and let out a breath as she saw some of her makeup had rubbed off a bit on her neck. The bruise wasn't that noticeable, but she should probably fix it anyway. She took out her compact and started dabbing it against her olive skin, hoping that this time it would be the last.

When the compact was back in her bag the door opened, making Sophie turn around in surprise. "Don't you knock? I could have been on the loo!" Sophie exclaims as she looks at Parker, who doesn't blink, doesn't say anything, just comes in and closes the door behind her.

"Parker?" Sophie asks, wondering why she isn't saying anything. But finally she opens her mouth, looking at her like she knows more than she's asking.

"What happened?"

"What?" Sophie asked, trying to feign confusement. She grabs her purse and tries to move towards the door, but Parker blocks it.

Parker doesn't say anything; she just lifts a finger and puts it to Sophie's neck, sliding it down to wipe off the makeup. Sophie grimaced in pain and put her hand on her neck as Parker holds up her makeup-covered finger like she just proved a point.

"God, you didn't have to press that hard," Sophie says as she cups the offending area. She was bruised after all.

"Sophie," Parker says, like she knows more than Sophie's saying.

"I just fell, okay?" Sophie says and digs through her purse again to try to find her compact again. She had to recover it now.

"On your neck?" Parker asked her, like it was a stupid thing to say to try to cover the lie. "You could have at least said you walked into a shelf or something, it would have been more believable."

"Look, I don't know what you're on about," Sophie said as she covered the spot yet again. "I just fell."

"Right," Parker says and gives her this look that Sophie wishes she didn't see in her eyes. Like she knows. Sophie averted her eyes from her and just looked at herself in the mirror.

There was silence for a minute before Parker pulls out something that looks like a cigarette from her bra, along with a lighter, and sparks it up. "I had a really fucked up childhood," she tells her, like that explains something as she exhales a lot of smoke out of her mouth.

"Parker!" Sophie exclaims as she grabs the cigarette looking thing from her, throwing it automatically in the toilet. There was a loud protest of 'Hey!' from Parker before Sophie looked at what she just threw in there. "What is _that?!"_ she asks, knowing full well but looking back at Parker like she was insane.

"It _was_ a joint," Parker says with an annoyed look on her face.

"Since when have you…?! Parker! Why are you doing drugs?!" Sophie exclaims, knowing that Parker had always made it clear that she never liked drugs. So seeing something like that was far from ordinary.

"It's a plant, Sophie. Not drugs. Stop changing the subject."

"What subject? We're talking about this now! Why are you smoking _that?!"_

"It calms me down. Makes my brain stop," she made erratic hand gestures with her fingers, pointing in all different directions and swirling them around, "Doing that."

Sophie just blinks at her. "Where did you_ get_ it?"

"From Patrick. Look," she says, like what they're talking about in that moment isn't important, and they needed to steer the conversation somewhere else, "Why are you covering up what Nate is doing to you?" Parker asks her.

"What Nate is doing to _me?_ Look at what this Patrick guy is doing to you!" Sophie tells her, pointing at the offending drug in the toilet. Granted, maybe what Nate was doing to her is far worse, but she didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want Parker to know, and steering the conversation to her problems seemed to be a better thing to do.

"It's a joint, not crack," Parker says and folds her arms over her chest. "You have finger shaped bruises on your throat."

But Sophie ignores what she's saying about her, and goes on. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised about this Patrick, he does live in the bad part of town. What's next? Shooting heroin?"

"He doesn't sell that," Parker says, and Sophie's eyes go wide.

"_You're dating a drug dealer?!"_ she practically screeches, and Parker puts her hands over her ears.

"Sophie!" she exclaims, wincing from the decibel of it. "He's a nice guy, now will you just shut up?" Sophie blinks at her, annoyed that Parker just told her to shut up. She was dating a drug dealer for shits sake, how is that not more important?!

"What is going on?" Parker asks her, her voice softer this time. She's look at Sophie like she pities her, and Sophie hates that.

"Nothing, I told you I fell. Stop assuming something horrible is going on, it's not. Me and Nate… we're really happy, alright?" She tried with everything she could to sound convincing, but Parker still didn't believe her.

"He's abusing you."

"No, Parker," Sophie says and grabs her arm, trying desperately to make her understand. "He's not, I promise. Things just… get out of control sometimes."

Parker scoffs, "Yeah that's what my foster father used to say to justify himself to his wife when she finally noticed bruises all over me."

"Parker…" Sophie says softly, looking at her with a mixture of sadness, because she had never known she went through that, and yet at the same time desperation, because she didn't want Parker to say anything to anyone. "Please…"

"You're an idiot," is all Parker says to her, and Sophie doesn't argue. Parker has a really effective weapon against her now: knowledge.

"I know," is all she says, jus agreeing with her so she won't have any reason to march out in the office right now and announce her theories. "Please," she pleaded, more desperately this time. "Please don't say anything. I'll do anything you want, okay?"

That was a probably a bad thing to offer.

"Have sex with me," is what's out of Parker's mouth the moment after Sophie offered. Sophie gapes at her and starts stuttering.

"W-What…? Parker… I… you…?"

Parker rolls her eyes and lets out a bit of a laugh, "It was a joke, Sophie. Don't have an aneurism."

"You… joke now?" Sophie asks, like it's something foreign. Parker can't joke, and used to never try.

"I've gotten better," she defends. She smirked, "That was funny to _me_, at least. You're face was so—"

"Parker," Sophie says, forgetting the attempted joke to get serious again. "Promise me, _please."_ She took her hands in hers and held them, looking her in the eyes and trying to convey with her actions just how much pleading she's willing to do to have this not become a public thing.

Parker just stares at her for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip as she thought about what she should do. After a moment she sighed and said, "You owe me, like… huge owe me. Cause this…" she takes her hand a delicately touches Sophie's neck, her face contorting into anger. "This isn't supposed to happen to you."

"I'm a damsel in distress," Sophie says quietly, smiling a bit as if she's joking… but she's not.

"But you don't want anyone to save you," Parker says as she steps back from her and just looks at her like she knows more than what she's seeing in front of her. Like she was almost seeing herself, just a very long time ago.

"I can take care of myself," Sophie tells her gently.

"Sure," Parker says and shrugs before putting her hand on the door handle, but she looked back at her before opening it. "I'll be sure to remind you of that when you show up at my house, needing somewhere safe to sleep."

"Parker!" Sophie calls out after her, but she's gone. Out the door, closing it behind her. Sophie closed her eyes and sighed as she sat heavily on the toilet, putting her hands in her hair. This wasn't supposed to happen. No one was supposed to know. "Bollocks," she cursed.

Her so-called picture perfect life had just been torn in half.

**TBC…**


	6. Bonding Activities

**CHAPTER SIX  
Bonding Activities**

Parker couldn't believe that Sophie was just taking something like that, what is wrong with her? She had seen the suspicious marks before, but Nate and Sophie had always seemed so happy that she never really thought about it. But after seeing Sophie looking like hell warmed over the other night, and not wanting to go back to her house… and now this? Parker knew. It was obvious. She used to live it.

Unfortunately because she lived it she also knew why Sophie wasn't doing anything about it. She got stuck in the lifestyle. It was hell, but it was familiar. Familiar always tended to win over anything else, because it's all you know anymore.

She really didn't want to know how long this had been going on. They've been dating for almost two years.

Parker just wanted to stop thinking, so instead of going home, she stopped over Patrick's house. She knocked on the door, and when he opened it she didn't greet him, just said, "I need some weed."

Patrick just smirked and let her in, closing the door behind her. "You alright, Sarah?" he asked as he sat down next to her on the couch.

Parker never told him her real name; it would have been too risky. Plus, she wasn't in a relationship or anything; she just had sex with him. And for sex you don't need real names.

"Fine, just want to get stoned," she tells him and leans on him a bit. He wraps one arm around her, this large muscular arm that Parker loves, and starts rolling a joint one handed.

"How was work?" he asked her, though he thought she was a secretary at a cooperate office building.

"Shitty," she answers, kicking her shoes off on to the floor. She didn't want to think about work right now. Didn't want to think about Sophie and Nate right now.

"Here," Patrick says, handing her the rolled up problem-disapearer. Parker lit it up and inhaled deeply, before closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the couch as she exhaled.

Patrick laughed a bit, "That bad?"

"Yeah," Parker says as she opens her eyes to look at him before placing it between her lips again and taking another drag. The smoke came out of her mouth as she continued, "My boss is an asshole."

"Everyone's boss is an asshole," Patrick tells her. "Why I work for myself."

"I used to," Parker tells him, then shrugs as she takes another drag before holding it out to pass it to him, but he waves it off.

"Got my own stuff," he says. "Enjoy that."

Parker smiled, and watched him take out a container. She snuggled into him a little bit as she put the joint between her teeth. As she exhaled she looked at what he was getting out and got this incredible feeling like disappointment flow through her body. She had watched that destroy so many people, but she wasn't going to say anything. He wasn't her boyfriend, it wasn't her problem.

Patrick started loading his pipe and Parker moved a bit away from him as he did. He looked at her questioningly, but all she told him was, "I don't want to smell that."

"Oh," he says, and instead gets up and moves to the other side of the room with the loaded pipe, trying to be courteous. But Parker wasn't sure how anyone could be courteous while smoking meth.

"That's not good for you," Parker tells him finally, not able to keep it in her as well as she thought she would. Patrick just laughed a bit and held the lighter up underneath the glass until it started smoking a bit, coming out the little hole in the top.

"Neither is what you're holding," he says before the puts his lips to the pipe and rotates it slowly, carefully.

"It makes people do things," Parker tells him, as she watches, hoping he'll just put it down. "Hurt people."

When Patrick exhaled he looked at her pointedly, "I'm not going to hurt you, Sarah."

"That's what everyone says," she tells him before sticking the joint back in her mouth and inhaling. Patrick looked at her before putting the pipe down on the table.

"Sorry, I won't do it in front of you then," he said, and Parker realized he genuinely felt bad for doing something she didn't like, so she smiled at him a bit in thanks. He holds his hand out for the joint instead and she gives it to him before he sits back down on the couch next to her.

"You get cable yet?" she asks him, looking at the television. He shakes his head.

"Nah, thinking about stealing one of Billy's black boxes, the dick ripped me off yesterday," he says as he blows out a long line of smoke.

"You want to?" Parker asks him, perking up at once. Stealing, see, that was funner than television.

Patrick looked at Parker in amusement, but also a little surprise. "You want to steal it?" he asked her, like he couldn't believe she said that. "Now?"

"Why not?" she said and got up before snatching the joint out of his mouth and taking a long drag before handing it back. "It'll be fun."

"Fun?" he asks again, amusement and shock coloring his voice. "Didn't know you were so the wrong side of the law, it's kind of hot."

Parker smirks and puts back on her shoes, but Patrick says, "It's still light out, let's wait till it gets dark."

"Why?" Parker asks, "Then it'll be too easy." She paused as she tied her laces. "Already is too easy."

"Breaking into someone's house in broad daylight is easy?" he asks, looking at her like he has no idea who stood in front of her, and he didn't. "Who_ are _you?" he asked with a laugh.

"Maybe one day you'll find out," she says with a teasing smirk before heading towards the door. "Come on."

But when they get there, Parker doesn't let Patrick out of the car. He obviously wasn't too slick in the way of getting things, since he didn't even want to do this in daylight. "Stay here," she tells him. He tries to protest.

"Sarah, we shouldn't do this now. His car is here."

"Good," Parker said. She always loved stealing things right from underneath people's noses, it was amusing. She opened the car door, but Patrick put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Sarah," he says again. "You're going to get caught."

"I never get caught," she tells him, before she slips out of his grip and is now running towards the side of the house. She hears Patrick curse before she stops and looks up, noticing an air vent on the side of the house. She would have to go in through that way, since the guy was home. She looks around and finds a trash barrel before pulling it over to where she was at, climbing on top of it. Pulling a lock pick from her bra, she loosens the screws on the air vent, letting it hang there by only one, and climbs inside.

It was dusty, moldy. The man probably never got them cleaned the entire time he lived there, so she put a hand over her nose and mouth to not breathe the offending air. She crawled a little ways on her stomach before she got to the first vent in the house. She looked out it and noticed the fat slob sitting on his couch, beer in hand, laughing at a cartoon where a baby with a big head was talking. She rolled her eyes and continued on.

When she found the second one she carefully opened it, making sure to not make any noise, then dropped to the floor. She was in his bedroom. Now all that was left was to find them.

But it was too easy, just like she thought it would be. In his closet, under a bunch of dirty clothes. She crinkles her nose at the underwear, then picks up one of the boxes before climbing on the bed and slipping it inside the vent. She jumped them, holding onto the edge as she pulled herself up with her strength, getting back inside.

When she came to the car with it, Patrick's mouth was open. "Drive," she says simply, and he does.

She's giggling now, the marijuana not being able to stop it. But Patrick looked so _shocked_. She puts the box in the back seat and Patrick finally speaks, looking at her like she's a new person.

"You… are the _hottest_ woman I have ever met," he tells her before leaning over and kissing her on the lips. She smiles against them and kisses him back, enjoying the feeling.

When they broke she had a smirk adorning her features and she replied, "If that's what I get for a cable box, what can I get for some diamonds?"

Patrick slammed on the brakes accidently due to his shock. Parker just giggled more.

**TBC…**


	7. Bah Humbug

**CHAPTER SEVEN  
Bah Humbug**

It was exactly three weeks after Parker and Sophie had that conversation that what Parker had predicted had come true. She came to her door once she heard the bell ring, putting down her Christmas decorations she was trying to hang up at the moment. Lights, holly, mistletoe, wreaths. She didn't know why she was even doing it, but it was Christmas, and she was told by Eliot after she asked that that's just when people do. Putting down the last string of lights, she walked to the door and when she opened it Sophie stood there, mascara smeared from crying so much, looking a disaster… with a bloody lip.

"Shit," Parker swore, and took her hand, leading her inside. She couldn't very well just leave Sophie looking like that. Sophie cried and wrapped her arms around Parker, burying her face in her shoulder, uttering incoherent things that Parker only caught the gist of, like the words 'wanker', 'drinking', and 'bloody Christmas.'

Sophie didn't know what to do. She didn't want to go to Parker's just because of what Parker had said to her, but she had no where else to go. If she went to a hotel she would just end up thinking somehow that it was all her fault and she'd come crawling back to him, like she always does, but even more so because of the Holiday. It's sick, really, the way he had warped her brain.

Parker tilted Sophie's chin up with her finger before wiping a bit of blood off of Sophie's lip with her thumb, before putting it in her mouth. "Damnit," she said, looking her over, touching the bruise on her chin delicately.

"Don't… blood…" Sophie tried to get out, trying to tell her she shouldn't randomly lick other people's blood like that, but she couldn't even get out the words though her tears.

"You got any diseases?" Parker asked her, though it was probably a question too late. Sophie shook her head, so Parker replied, "Then don't worry about it. Lay down." She guided Sophie into her bedroom and put her on her bed, and Sophie curled herself into a ball as Parker put the covers over her. She sat next to her, and looked at her like she didn't know what to do.

She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to go over to Sophie's house and kick Nate's ass so bad his scrotum would bleed out of his mouth, but she knew Sophie didn't want her to. And that was stopping her… so far.

She looked at the woman curled into her bed, and creased her brow in upset before putting her hand down on top of Sophie's, not knowing what else to do. She patted it kind of awkwardly, not good with the whole comforting thing, and waited for her to talk. Because if she came over here instead of going somewhere else, than she wanted to talk about it.

Sophie curled her hand around Parker's to hold it as she cried for a bit, and Parker waited as patiently as she could, but it wasn't one of her strong suits. "Why?" she asked suddenly into the silence of the room other than the sound of Sophie's distress.

"Egg nog… the bloody fucking tree…. kept falling over… pissed off…" Sophie tried to get out through her tears, and Parker shushed her. It wasn't going to help if she can't tell the whole story. So she decided to try to be patient again and laid down next to Sophie. Sophie sniffed and laid her head on Parker's breast, and Parker looked down at her with this odd look, eyes wide, that meant that probably wasn't the best place in the world for her to lay on her, but Sophie was upset so she needed to be okay with it. She put an arm around Sophie and just waited until she calmed down.

Sophie hugged Parker tighter, feeling safer now. Ever since that night, she knew that as bloody fucked up as it really is, Parker is her knight in shining armor. She's the one that will protect her. She knew she was all over her, which she also knew Parker wasn't very fond of, but she just needed it, and the way Parker didn't protest made Sophie think that she knew that she did.

Why did this have to happen on Christmas Eve, of all nights?

When Sophie could finally breathe and calmed down a bit. She looked up at Parker, wiping her eyes, before looking back down and noticing something. "Oh, sorry… I seem to have gotten blood all over your blouse."

Parker looked down, and seeing a couple blood spots from where Sophie's lip was she just sat up, making Sophie sit up too for a minute before pulling it off over her head and discarding it to the floor, leaving her there in just her bra. She laid back down without saying a word.

"Do you want me to wash it for you?" Sophie asked, trying to be polite.

"I want you to tell me what happened," Parker said seriously, and Sophie looked down before sniffing again and deciding to curl back on top of Parker, head on her breast again, though this time it was only on her bra. She thought she could feel Parker take a sharp inhale of breath, but then she was relaxed and Sophie was sure she just imagined it. She rested her hand on top of Parker's stomach, enjoying the softness of it.

"We were trying to put up the tree," she explains softly. "Nate was drinking eggnog… a lot. The kind with rum in it, you know? And he couldn't get up the tree, and it was funny to see him struggle so I laughed a bit, you know? And he got mad, started calling me a 'good for nothing bitch' saying I'm not even trying to help and he was trying to do this for me anyway because he doesn't bloody like the Holidays…." She paused and started tracing little circles on Parker's stomach trying to distract herself. "I got mad, he kept calling me names… so I threw my glass at him. I didn't expect it to hit him, but it did. So he…" she coughed, not wanting to say it out loud. "I pushed the tree on him and then left," she finished.

"You pushed the tree on top of him?" Parker asked, surprised, but yet at the same time seemed almost amused at the mental picture in her head, and she smiled. "Good." Another pause, "So you're not just… taking it then."

"Of course not," Sophie said, looking at her like she was a bit mad for even suggesting it. "It's not like I'm one of those women that just lays there and takes it. I've stabbed him in the leg, pointed a gun at his chest, and once I even took a can of hairspray and a lighter. He backed up quickly from that one." She sighed heavily. "I defend myself, I do… but sometimes I can't help but think that I'm the one that always bloody starts it. He never hits me unless I hit him first."

"It doesn't matter," Parker told her. "Look what he does to you, I barely ever see a scratch on him. Except the singed forearm hair… and the leg… was that the dog thing?"

Sophie didn't answer for a moment, just closed her eyes and stayed silenr. "I don't want to go back," Sophie admits quietly, finally, and stops tracing circles on her stomach to look up at her.

"Then don't," Parker tells her. "Get a hotel room or something."

"But I can't…" Sophie says, sighing a bit. The circles started up again. She pursed her lips, then winced at the pain and went on, "I can't just leave… you know? He'd be a wreck without me."

"He's a wreck with you now, obviously," Parker says, still feeling very awkward from Sophie being all over her like she was, but not knowing the significance of it, if it even had one. She knew Sophie felt safe with her, but there was no reason to be making imaginary pictures on her stomach with her finger. "He started drinking again, then," she finishes, but it wasn't a question. Just a disappointed repeat.

Sophie just sighed and looked down at her fingers, concentrating on making an imaginary picture of a world where all this shit just didn't happen anymore. "Where's Patrick?" Sophie asks finally, "Thought you'd be with him."

"We broke up," Parker tells her, and Sophie looks up at her.

"What? When?"

Parker shrugs, "A week ago? He was trying to get all 'let's call Parker my girlfriend though I only know her as Sarah' and it was just… weird. I don't know." A pause. "He was nice… but he had a drug problem that I just…" she just shrugs, finishing. She looks down at Sophie and pushes a piece of hair out of her face, since it seemed to be sticking to her lip a little. Parker didn't like seeing Sophie all beat up, just as much as she didn't like the fact that she was bleeding on her either. "Here, sit up for a minute," she tells her, and when she does she gets off the bed to go get something.

When she comes back she has a wet face cloth, and she sits back down on the bed in front of Sophie and starts dabbing the wound gently. Would hopefully stop the bleeding all over herself… and Parker. Sophie sniffed and looked down as Parker cleaned her up, and as Parker put her hand down after she was done, Sophie held it, stilling her. Parker looked confused before Sophie leaned in and kissed her softly on the cheek, making Parker's eyes flutter closed for a moment.

"You're my knight," she tells her in a whisper, then a small smile.

"Yeah well… I have the white car. Probably should get a horse after this, but they poop everywhere," Parker says with a smirk, then looks down and shakes her head, angry with Nate. "I want to hurt him, Sophie."

"Please, just… let it go for now, okay?" Sophie pleaded, and squeezed Parker's hand that she was holding, making Parker drop the facecloth on her sheets. Sophie laced their fingers together and repeated, "Please… for me?"

"Do you want to owe me your life or something?" Parker asks her, wondering why she keeps doing this.

Sophie shrugged and says with a little smile, "Might be better if I did. You seem to make me happier, anyway."

Parker smiled a little, and squeezed Sophie's hand back a bit more. "Come on, I'll feed you. I ordered pizza this time, Christmas and all." She goes to get up but Sophie stops her, not letting go of her hand, and Parker is pulled back on the bed.

"Parker…" she starts, then stops, not even really knowing what she wanted to say. Instead she pulls her into a hug, burying her face in her neck, thinking briefly how nice Parker's hair smelt. They stayed there for a bit, until Sophie pulled away really slowly. They both looked at each other, face only and inch away, and Sophie could feel the breath catching in her throat.

"Food," Parker spits out automatically, looking uncomfortable, effectively breaking the spell. Sophie shakes her head and then nods, moving away from Parker.

"Right."

**TBC…**


	8. Mistletoe

**CHAPTER EIGHT  
Mistletoe**

What Sophie needed more than anything was to just forget it all and be happy for a moment. It was Christmas, after all. Almost anyway, another hour. And that's what Parker did. They ate their pizza and turned on the television, watching 'A Christmas Carol', that Sophie was shocked that Parker had _never _seen. She asked her why it had a bondage ghost, and Sophie spit out her soda she had laughed so hard.

After the movie had ended they turned off the TV and Parker turned on her Christmas lights, turning out all the rest so it was just illuminated by the rainbow dots all over the room. Sophie had to giggle at how she decorated; hanging strings from the ceiling in patterns that made no sense, but looking up at them they almost seemed like brightly colored stars.

Parker lay on the couch with one leg propped up, and Sophie positioned herself between them as she laid her head against her chest. Parker still didn't put on a shirt, due only to the fact that she apparently had absolutely nothing else to wear since she hadn't done laundry in forever, which made Sophie tell her that she'd help her with it tomorrow.

They lay there for a bit in silence, just looking up at the lights on the ceiling. Parker started playing with Sophie's hair, getting used to Sophie's need for touchy feelyness. She stopped minding it so much, it wasn't really that bad, after all. She didn't understand why Sophie always wanted to be touching her though, usually women would only do that when they wanted to have sex with you, but Parker was pretty sure that wasn't it. Sophie was just sad. Lonely maybe. Cause Nate was a dickhead.

"What's that?" Sophie asked, pointing to the ceiling at a dark spot that she couldn't make out that was right above them.

"Mistletoe," Parker says, like the object was ridiculous. She shrugged, "I don't get why people kiss under it. It's not like it orders you to or anything, there's no sign. It's just a plant."

"It's a sign of fertility and fortune. Used to be used in weddings in ancient Rome," Sophie tells her, looking up at it. "It contains the female sex hormone, you know." She looked up at her and smirked.

"So it's a horny female plant then?" Parker asks, giggling. She didn't even ask how Sophie knew… Sophie just knew everything. Sophie giggled too and shrugged. Then she smiled a bit like she was getting a devious idea and turned a bit more to look at Parker, leaning a bit against her shoulder so she was face to face with her, but yet still laying down.

"Come on," she says, a bit of a smirk pulling at her lips. "One for the holidays?"

"What?" Parker asked, not understanding what she's talking about. Then her eyes widen and she goes, "Ohhh…" then another pause, eyes narrowed, confused. "You want me to kiss you under the mistletoe? Isn't that kind of… lame?"

"Oh come on, Parker. Please? It'll be festive."

"You really want to make out with me under a plant for the sake of a holiday?" Parker asks, still confused by the idea. Sophie didn't like women, least she didn't think so. She definitely didn't like Parker, although was starting to like her as a friend a whole lot more under the unfortunate circumstances. She didn't see how it would be fun for Sophie. It'd be fun for Parker, cause well, she did like women… and Sophie was pretty. But it was because of that that she didn't really want to do it. She might like it a bit too much.

"I didn't say 'make out', I said kiss. Under a mistletoe, because it's Christmas," Sophie tells her, like she should understand what she means, but Parker still doesn't. All she gets is that Sophie wants to stick her tongue down her throat because a plant told her to.

"Don't grab me or anything," Parker tells her, because then it might end up a bit more than kissing. Sophie rolls her eyes.

"I'll try not to, promise," she says, though it's dripping with sarcasm as she smirks.

Sophie shifted a bit then, got more on top of Parker, almost laying on her. Parker's heart started beating faster, and all of a sudden she was nervous. She's going to be kissing Sophie in a minute. _Sophie_. That wasn't just a normal festive kiss, was it? It wasn't like it was some random girl in a bar that was drunk and thought it would be fun to make out under a plant… this is Sophie. Sophie wanted to kiss her... why again?

Sophie took a deep breath and looked at Parker, trying to give her a small smile because the poor girl looked like she might have a heart attack from Sophie being on top of her. She knew Parker was very into women, and maybe this wasn't very fair to her, because it's not like Sophie was interested in her in that way. Least not really. Parker made her happy though, about the only thing that did make her happy these days, and so if she was to share a festive maybe-lesbian kiss with someone, then Parker seemed to be the right one to do it with.

She just wanted to feel something nice again, and if Parker could do that without kissing her, than she wanted to know if she could do it better if she did.

It sounded a lot less lesbian in her head. Really.

Parker didn't seem to get any less nervous though, so Sophie just giggled softly at her demeanor before whispering, "Relax, it's just a kiss."

"Sure," Parker said in a low voice, letting out the breath she seemed to have been holding. Sophie smiled again before leaning forward slowly, and pressing her lips gently against Parker's.

It hurt a bit, with her lip being cut the way it was, but it wasn't anything that she couldn't manage. She closed her eyes and parted her lips, allowing Parker to do the same. She could feel Parker let out a tiny breath as Sophie slipped her tongue into her mouth. She wasn't expecting to, she really only wanted to do an open mouth kiss, but her tongue seemed to have other plans. Sophie could feel Parker's hand move a bit to grip the couch hard, probably trying to control herself, but for some reason that just made Sophie want to kiss her more.

She let out a soft moan against Parkers lips and placed her hand on her cheek as she kissed her deeper, just enjoying how well Parker could kiss. The thief was incredibly skilled with her tongue, and it made a shiver run down to the base of her spine. They broke for only a second, just to take a breath before Sophie's lips were on hers again, kissing her lightly once more before looking down, resting her forehead against Parker's. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

"Thanks," Sophie said softly. "Needed that, I guess."

"Right," Parker said, her breathing noticeably different. "You're welcome… I guess."

The awkward moment was a bit overwhelming, so Sophie got off of her, sitting up on the other end of the couch. "Sorry about the… tongue. That wasn't in the original plan."

"I liked it," Parker says automatically, then looked like she was mentally kicking herself for saying it. Sophie smiles a bit, then looks at Parker… and starts giggling.

Parker looks confused, "What?" Sophie just points to her bra, which was unpadded, and Parker looks down. "Shit," she says, noticing her nipples were incredibly alert to the situation at hand. She didn't cover them though, there was no point. "Well you started it," she defended.

"Sorry," Sophie says, her hand over her mouth, still giggling at Parker's obvious unintentional arousal.

"I bet," Parker says, annoyance in her voice, but it was light. She rolled her eyes before smiling. "Come on, I want to show you something," she said before she gets up from off the couch.

"Really?" Sophie asks, surprised at the way Parker said it. Like it was almost a surprise. She got up and followed Parker into her bedroom. Parker opened her closet, which was filled to the brim with dirty clothes, and started rummaging through boxes. Sophie just sat on the bed and watched her, waiting. Then there was a, "Aha!" from inside the dark closet and Parker reemerged… with a present.

"What's that?" Sophie asked, like it wasn't obvious. But at that moment, it wasn't for her.

"It's your Christmas present. Duh," Parker replied and tossed it to her. Sophie looked surprised but caught it. She looked at the disastrously wrapped box that Parker obviously decorated herself like she didn't think it was real in front of her.

"You… you bought me a present?" Sophie asked, looking up at her. She couldn't believe Parker did that.

"Don't think you're special or anything, I bought one for everyone. But I think I might burn Nate's now," she said as she sat on the bed next to Sophie and bounced up and down a bit in the excitement. "Come on, open it!"

So Parker was almost sweet for a minute there… almost. Sophie just rolls her eyes at her and tears apart the wrapping paper, revealing a shoebox. "Oh my god, you didn't…" she says in an awed whisper before she opens it and squeals in that high pitched way that she always does. Parker puts her hands over her ears.

"Ohh Parker, they're GORGEOUS!" she exclaims, pulling out a pair of boots that were so the height of fashion right now. "I love them!"

"I know you like shoes," Parker says with a shrug. "So I went to the store and told the guy I wanted the prettiest most expensive pair he had."

Sophie squealed again before putting them down on the bed and basically jumping on top of her, squeezing her so much Parker thought her lungs might bust from the force. "I love them! Thank you so much!" she says and kisses her on the lips automatically, which makes Parker's eyes go wide, but Sophie doesn't even seem to notice.

She's off of her then, putting on the boots so she could see how they looked on her. Parkers still sitting on the bed, half in shock from Sophie just kissing her like that. She touched her lips automatically, then shook her head to clear it as she sat up and looked at Sophie strut around, and she did mean _strut,_ in front of the mirror.

"They're perfect," Sophie gushes, then she turns and gives her a smile. "_You're_ perfect."

Parker doesn't know what to say to that.

**TBC…**


	9. One Foot Out The Door

**CHAPTER NINE  
One Foot Out The Door**

After the holidays, the team assembled back into the office. Nate looked positively shocked that Sophie walked in with Parker, but played his part in the lie, and smiled and kissed Sophie on the lips, acting like the perfect couple in front of the whole team, but Parker knew better. She tried not to glare at him, tried hard to pretend she knew nothing, but it was hard. It was also hard when Eliot took one look at Nate and asked, "What happened to you?" Which made Nate grumble a reply about how he got attacked by a tree… which in turn, made Parker laugh loud and obnoxiously, glad he did.

Nate just ignored her, used to Parker laughing at everything like that.

"Alright," Hardison said, coming into the room with an empty box in his hands, waving it around at them. "Who ate all the HotPockets?"

"Um…" Parker started to say, looking guilty, so Hardison threw the empty box at her. She squealed and ducked, giggling.

"You know they were my favorite, Parker!" he exclaims, annoyed at her. "You're buying me more," he tells her, pointing at her to further enhance his demand.

"Don't be a damn pansy about it, it's just food," Eliot told him and rolled his eyes a bit.

"I'm not… did you… did you just call me a _pansy?"_ Hardison asked, with mock shock as he put his hand to his chest like it had offended him. "They are _not_ just food! They are like… if the freezer was a religion, HotPockets would be it's God."

"You're fucking weird," is all Eliot says.

Parker's too involved in the interaction between Hardison and Eliot to notice Sophie get dragged by her elbow very discreetly into the other room. "Ow, you're hurting me," she says in a low voice, moving her arm out of his grasp.

"What did you tell her?" he demanded, pinning her up against a wall so she couldn't move.

"What? Nothing, Nate. Jesus," she says, and tries to push away from him, but he pins her there.

"She didn't ask about your lip? Come on," he says, like he knows better. She just looks at him, narrowing her eyes. They shouldn't be doing this here in the office.

"Nate, really? _Now?"_ she asks in a whisper, but he gives her a look like she needs to tell him right now. She narrows her eyes and says, "I told her we had issues getting up the tree, that it fell on us and then landed on the switchboard, leaving us with no electricity. Why I needed to stay over. Told her you needed to visit your parents anyway. Okay? Now let me go."

He let her go, but then his face softened and he touched Sophie's face, where the bruise would be except for the makeup that covered it. "I'm sorry, you know I love you, Sophie," he says, and all she can do is nod.

"Yeah, Nate. I know. You're sorry and you love me. Right," and then she just turns on her heel without another word and comes back into the briefing room, still not sure where she stood with Nate anymore. She loved him, she did. She loved him so much it hurt… unfortunately very literally on that matter. Part of her just wanted to stay with Parker, not as a replacement for Nate or anything, but just because she was so happy there that it was hard for her to know that she had to go home with Nate tonight.

Not that Parker wanted her to, she told her that if she sees Sophie like that one more time then she's not going to stop herself from hurting something bigger than a present this time. Which of course Sophie didn't want her to do either, but she couldn't figure out a way to stay there without making Nate… mad.

That was always it wasn't it? How to not make Nate mad. Lord. Like walking on broken glass.

"Yoshi is not a green dog, Parker! He's a DINOSAUR!" Hardison explains exasperatedly as he points to a poster he had put up on the wall (much to everyone else's dismay) of old school Mario characters. "See, does that _look _like a dog to you?"

"Yes," is all Parker says, which makes Eliot laugh and Hardison do a face palm.

"Uh, Hardison," Nate says, looking him pointedly. Hardison looks at him. "Aren't you supposed to be finding us clients?"

"It's the day after Christmas, Scrooge. I don't know why you even have us here in the first place," Hardison says, hands folding across his chest.

"I second that," Eliot says. "Could be getting laid now."

"Oh please," Sophie says, rolling her eyes.

"Me too," Parker says, and everyone looks at her.

"With who?" Eliot and Sophie ask at the same time that Hardison asks, "I thought you broke up with Patrick," which make's Nate ask, "Who's Patrick?"

Parker looks overwhelmed with all the questions being thrown in her general vicinity. She holds up her hands in surrender, "I was just saying, this girl came on to me the other day, maybe her. Jeez."

Sophie has a fleeting slightly ego-swelling moment that she thinks she's talking about her, though isn't really sure why, but then a terrifying moment that Nate might know that, but when Hardison asks, "Who?" Parker replies some girl she met at the Museum she was trying to check out, which made Nate glare at her and tell her absolutely _no _freelancing.

Sophie can breathe a bit better, knowing Parker didn't take her festive kiss the wrong way. Because she didn't mean it like that, even though it was really nice. She kind of wanted to keep kissing Parker, but obviously in a non-lesbian manner. Just because it was… nice. New. Fun, even. Girl friends kiss sometimes, right? She couldn't remember anyone else she ever kissed that was her friend just for the hell of it except for one girl she knew back in high school. Sophie thinks she heard she's a lesbian now though.

Parker just glared at him and told him to, "Eat it." Which made Nate look surprised at the exclamation, but passed it off because it was Parker.

"Can we go home, please?" Hardison asks again, slightly whining.

"Seriously," Eliot says, "This is pointless. We shouldn't have to work until after New Years."

"Guys, people need our help, even during the holidays!" Nate exclaimed, furious with them all for being so selfish, even though that might be most hypocritical thing he has ever done in his life.

"Come on, Nate, let's just go home," Sophie says, and puts her arm through his, lacing them together. Putting on a show, like always. She smiles at him in the sickingly sweet way that for once is almost making her sick and he sighs in defeat.

"Fine… but if all of you are not here on the second I'm cutting of YOUR Internet connection," he points to Hardison, who gasps. "YOUR phone," as he points to Eliot, who glares because that means he can't call any women. "And YOUR…" he points at Parker, then stops. "I don't know what yet, but I'll do something you don't like either."

"You already are," she says to him in a way that meant more than she said before she got up, walking over to her bag that she brought. Before she let anyone go she announced, her sour look turning so rapidly into a smile, "Presents!"

Hardison and Eliot bounded over to Parker like two kids, and Sophie couldn't help but laugh. She reluctantly when to go get her own that she got for the group, and after Hardison and Eliot opened theirs and exchanged high fives, they went and go theirs for everyone as well. During the gift exchange, which Nate mumbled something incoherent about how they're all at the house and he'll bring them later, Parker looked at Nate and said, "Your present burned in a freak stove accident," she told him, looking at him blankly. "Sorry," she says, but she doesn't sound it. Nate doesn't even care.

After everyone had gotten their gifts, Parker's gaze flickered over at Sophie and Nate briefly, her gaze more than just lingering on Sophie in particular, before she left with her arms full of presents. Hardison had gotten her the latest video game system, probably trying to corrupt her, no doubt.

Sophie didn't want her to leave. She didn't feel safe anymore, even with Eliot still in the room, who could kick ten times the ass Parker could. But then Eliot leaves, and then Hardison… and her and Nate are alone.

"Nice boots," he says, looking at them, but didn't say it in a tone that indicated he thought they were anything close to the word nice. "Where did they come from?"

"Parker bought me them for Christmas, she gave them to me yesterday," she told him, with a pointed look like she still has yet to receive _his_ present.

"It's in the car," he answers her unasked question. "Didn't get time to wrap it though… but it's there."

Sophie just crosses her arms across her chest and stares at him. If it was in the car unwrapped it meant it was a last minute gift, only bought for the purpose of yet another 'I'm sorry I got drunk and hit you again.' AGAIN. She doubted the rest of the teams presents were even bought yet.

"This isn't working, Nathan," she told him finally getting up the courage to just voice is out loud, sighing a bit, because she wished more than anything that it could work.

"Sophie, I said I was sorry," Nate says.

"You always say you're sorry! That doesn't stop it though, does it?" Sophie exclaimed, looking at him like she wished it did. Like sorry made everything be good again, make all the bad go away.

"Don't do this, you know I love you. I'll clean myself up, I swear," Nate says and takes her hands in his, holding them. "I love you, Sophie."

"But that's just not enough anymore," Sophie tells him, taking her hands out of his. She looked down, trying not to cry. She always bloody cried, didn't she? "I mean you don't even get me a Christmas present until last minute, what does that even say? Even Parker—"

"What _is_ it with you and Parker now anyway?" Nate said, and Sophie could hear the jealousy seep through his voice. "You're always with her lately."

"Nothing, we're just friends, Nate," Sophie tells him, looking at him like he's being absurd for even asking.

"Does _she _know that?"

"Of course she does," Sophie said with a scoff. Nate really was being a ponce.

"Because apparently she's this big lesbian _slut_ now, I don't want her thinking that she can—"

"Don't call her that!" Sophie exclaims, angry. "She's not a slut! Jesus, Nate! Can you just leave it? We're just friends, not like it's any of your business anyway!"

"You're_ my_ woman, Sophie, of course it's my business."

"Not anymore," Sophie told him before turning, trying to walk out the door, but Nate grabbed her. She turned to face him, angry that he wouldn't let her go.

"Sophie… please," he said, his voice softer. "I love you, you're my everything." She just sighed and he started to kiss her neck, making her close her eyes at the feeling of his lips. It was such a rarity now that she forgot how much she missed it. "I love you with everything I have, I'd be nothing without you." He kissed up her neck and she sighed heavily, feeling herself give in again. "I'll do right by you, I swear," he whispers against her lips now… and then she breaks.

She kisses him, not knowing what else to do. She wants to be with him, but she wants to be with the good Nate, the one that doesn't treat her like a whore. She liked this Nate in front of her, the one that kissed her sweetly and told her she was beautiful, who made her feel good inside.

She might never really have the strength to walk out that door because of that.

**TBC…**


	10. Playing Dress Up

**CHAPTER TEN  
Playing Dress Up**

It had been a month since then, and Nate had kept true to his word. He didn't lay a hand on her, and he even stopped drinking cold turkey. Sophie could see it was hard for him, but he was trying, and that was all she could really ask for. Things were getting better, even though there were still angry arguments from sober Nate now, just frustrated because he can't go have a drink.

Her and Parker had become closer though, and Sophie found they were hanging out about every other day at least. She was still the first person that Sophie thought of when she needed to feel safe, and even though Nate was doing significantly better since Christmas, the arguments still continued to escalate.

"Oh god, do we have to?" came Parker's worried response to Sophie's request. The last thing she needed right now was to enhance the already too girly behavior between the two of them.

"Of course!" Sophie said like she was ridiculous for even contemplating otherwise, and turned her to face the wall mirror as she sat her down on a chair and stood behind her. "You want to look beautiful for her, don't you?"

Parker made a face but sat diligently into the chair designated for her. She puffed out her cheeks as she let out a breath in defeat. "I'm not pretty enough now?" she asked her, looking at herself in the mirror. She thought she was pretty, at least. Mariah did say yes to the date when she was looking like this anyway, so why change it?

"Parker, you're gorgeous, I mean that," Sophie said, looking her in the eyes seriously so to pick up what she thought was Parker's dropping self esteem, though in fact it was only her confusement. "But everyone likes to look a little extra special while trying to impress someone of romantic interest."

"But I just want to have sex, not have romance," Parker tells her honestly, which makes Sophie roll her eyes and swat her a bit with the comb she had in her hand before starting to run in through her hair. Parker winced as she pulled on a knot.

"Well then this will help you get her into bed then, yeah?" Sophie said, trying to be serious but still sounding like overt sarcasm. Didn't Parker realize that some women needed a touch of romance?

"If you say so," is all Parker replies, then lets out an "Ow!" as Sophie pulls at her hair again. She slaps her hand over the offending area and glares at Sophie in the mirror.

Sophie let's out a patient sigh, "Well if you took better care of your hair that wouldn't have happened."

"My hair is fine," Parker replies and tries to get up, but is pushed with one hand on the shoulder back into the chair by Sophie. She huffs.

"Now tell me about this girl," Sophie requests as she starts working on her hair again.

Parker shrugs, "She's just a girl. Has nice boobs."

"Parker!" Sophie exclaims, and thwacks her on the head with the comb, which makes Parker cover her head again and exclaim annoyance on the matter. "You need to stop talking about women that way Eliot does."

"But she does have nice boobs!" Parker protests, clearly not understanding what was so wrong with saying that. She rubs her head a bit then puts her hand down. "I don't know, what do you want to know?"

"Why do you like her?" Sophie asks as she puts down the comb and starts picking up a few bobby pins, putting them in her mouth as she gets to work on her project.

"Because she's hot. Do we have to have girl time right now?" she asks, never enjoying these conversations much because she never felt like how a girl is supposed to be most of the time during these.

"Yes," Sophie tells her. A pause, "Anything else? Or are you simply just trying to get up her skirt?"

"The skirt thing."

Sophie sighs as she twists Parker's hair up, holding it in place with the bobby pins. "Are you ever interested in anything other than sex with another person?"

"I was with Hardison," Parker says, then makes a face. "It didn't end happy though so I don't see the point anymore."

"You can't write off all relationships because of that," Sophie told her softly, pausing to look at her in the mirror. She put her hands on Parker's shoulders and then ran them down her arms, squeezing them a bit. "You'll find someone else, I promise."

"Who?" Parker scoffs, rolling her eyes. "Everyone thinks I'm insane, all I'm good for is sex."

"That is not true!" Sophie exclaimed and came around the other side of the chair to face Parker, kneeling down in front of her so she could get at eye level with the thief. She tucked a piece of blonde hair behind her ear and rested her hand on her cheek, looking at her seriously. "You are so amazing Parker. You're incredibly sweet most of the time, you're protective and brave, you're talented… you have so much to offer someone. Please believe me about that." She leaned in and kissed Parker, just a press of the lips that lingered probably a bit longer than it should have. When they broke she gave her a small smile and Parker licked her lips nervously and just nodded, not knowing what else to say.

It was like that with them now though: Sophie kissing Parker all the time. Parker didn't understand why, because it was never anything that she could interpret as solely sexual because they were always during times like this, or sometimes just kisses hello or goodbye. Sophie always seemed to want to kiss Parker, but it was never like the one under the mistletoe. There wasn't any tongue, it wasn't meant for anything else other than what exactly it was: a kiss. Or at least, Parker thought. But she did notice Sophie seemed to keep doing it a lot more often than not recently, and each kiss seemed to last a bit longer than the last.

When Sophie went back to her place behind the chair she continued to fix Parker's hair, and she laughed a bit as she admitted, "You know, it's funny. Sometimes I think that if it wasn't for Nate I'd try to make a play for you, even though you're a woman."

Parker just blinked at her, "What?"

Sophie didn't seem to understand the significance of what she just said to Parker, so she kept on. "Yeah, you know, I feel safe with you. Happier. I guess even though I'm not into women specifically, it might just feel so right with you that it wouldn't matter." She giggled a bit then shrugged as she put in the last bobby pin in her hair. "But no use talking about something like that." Parker was about to ask why not, when Sophie exclaimed, "There, done!"

Parker looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes wide at how it looks, though her mind was still trying to process what Sophie had just admitted to her. But she doesn't get much of a chance because Sophie's pulling her up now, over to her closet. "Now for clothes," she tells her, and starts looking through it.

Parker just stares at her, not knowing exactly how she was supposed to feel about what Sophie said. If she was to be honest with herself, she felt a little happy at the revelation, though that surprised her and yet at the same time worried her for the same reasons.

It also made her not want to go on the date she had tonight. She wanted to stay with Sophie, which was also a really bad thing to want.

"Oh Parker, you should just throw this wretched thing out," Sophie says, holding up a sweatshirt that was beyond wear and tear. Parker snapped out of her thoughts to snatch the offending object out of Sophie's hands and hold it close to her.

"No, its my favorite!"

Sophie just rolled her eyes a bit before pulling out a little black cocktail dress. "Ah, see this… this is perfect," she says as she hands it to Parker. "Try it on."

"But I already know it fits, its mine," Parker tells her.

Sophie just let out a patient sigh but responds, "I know that, but I want to see my work it it's entirety, now strip."

Parker blinks again at Sophie's order of 'strip', just because that could be taken so many ways. But she does what she says and takes off her shirt, pulling up off over her head and discarding it to the floor before pulling off her pants. Sophie looked at her in her underwear, and then the dress, and observed, "I think you're going to have to lose the bra. The dress is padded anyway."

For the first time in Parker's life, she was hesitant about taking her clothes off in front of someone. She had this funny feeling in the pit of her stomach that she didn't know how to explain, and she just thought it might be a bad idea, though she wasn't sure why.

"Oh come on, Parker, we're both girls," Sophie says with an eye roll. "You've never been shy before. Just take it off so you can put on the dress." And then she just stands there, staring at her.

Parker does what she says though, silently reaching up behind her to unclasp her bra before shrugging it off of her shoulders, letting it fall to the ground probably more slowly than she should have allowed it to. Sophie blinks a minute, staring at her chest like she wasn't expecting to do it so obviously. But Parker noticed it.

"The dress..." Sophie says finally, her voice a bit lower then normal, trying to tell Parker to please put back on her clothes, that maybe her own idea wasn't the best after all.

"Right," Parker says, and shakes herself out of it before sliding the dress on. Sophie goes behind her and zips it up for her slowly, before placing her hands delicately on the other woman's shoulders before turning her around to face her.

"God," Sophie breathed as she looks her over. "You look stunning."

Parker chewed on her bottom lip a bit before looking up at Sophie, before deciding to do the one thing Sophie always did to her. She leaned in and pressed her lips to hers, closing her eyes as she felt the grip Sophie had to her shoulder tighten a bit. When they broke she whispered, "Thank you…"

She knew a thank you kiss wasn't out of line.

Sophie looks down, biting her tongue lightly for a minute as if to stop herself from saying something. Then she was out of the trance, and smiled at her before giving her a little affectionate pat on the butt, which made Parker jump a bit. "Come on, shoes now. You're going to have everyone falling all over you."

Unfortunately, that' what Parker found herself hoping for, but it wasn't about Mariah.

**TBC…**


	11. Just Friends

**CHAPTER ELEVEN  
Just Friends**

It was one month, two women of Parker's, and many 'platonic' kisses later that Nate broke his promise and started drinking again. The day that Sophie came over with a black eye was the day Parker retaliated, not being able to take it anymore.

So she was hardly surprised when Sophie burst though her apartment door the next day, now having a key, slamming it against the wall as she looked at Parker accusingly, "His _car?"_

"Yup," is all Parker says as she pops a piece of popcorn into her mouth.

"_You set his car on fire!?"_ Sophie exclaims as she walks towards her and started making erratic hand gestures that in no way made any sense to Parker.

"Yup," she says again, putting the bowl back on the table and looking at her finally.

"Parker, that was a two thousand eight Ferrari _Telsa_ _Roadster _for shits sake!" Sophie cries, and then slumps down next to her on the couch, with her head in her hands. Parker blinks and looks over at her, Sophie looks absolutely distraught over the loss of the vehicle.

"Are you mourning the car?" she asks her, tilting her head to look at her curiously. "Why? Look what he did to you."

"It was _pretty _though…" Sophie mumbles into her hands. "And I already shot him in the foot for it, did you really have to murder something so…" she sighed and took her head out of her hands and instead decided to collapse against Parker heavily. "It was so pretty," she repeated in a sad voice.

"You're relationship with him is really fucked up," Parker tells her finally. Because it was. They were happy for two months, then he goes back to hitting her, but it's okay because Sophie shot him in the foot for it? How did that even make sense?

"The _car…"_ is all Sophie sighs and bangs her forehead against Parker's shoulder a bit.

"Ow," Parker says and shrugs her off of her. Sophie looks disgruntled at being shoved off of Parker in that way, and looks at her. But Parker looks a bit angry.

"What's wrong with you?"

"_You're welcome,"_ is all Parker says before folding her arms into herself in a huff and stares at the far wall. Jeez, go through all the trouble to hurt someone because of what they did to someone she care about, and this is the thanks she gets? She singed part of her hair doing that.

"No, Parker… I didn't mean to make you think I…" Sophie started, looking at the thief. She put her hand on her leg. "I am glad you stuck up for me, Parker. But I just wish you didn't have to involve that _beautiful car…"_

Parker made a face but looked over at her, feeling her heart sink at the sight of her eye. She touched her face gently, before putting down her hand heavy against the couch. "You're dumb, you could have someone who would treat you so much better."

"Like who?" Sophie asks with a scoff. "I'm a grifter, it's not safe for anyone to know who I really am outside of you guys."

Parker doesn't answer, but that wasn't because she didn't know who.

The problem was, throughout the past month she came to the very bad realization that she liked Sophie. A lot, actually. Like more than what she was supposed to. Even more than just sex. And that was bad for one of three reasons. One, Sophie was stuck in an abusive relationship with Nate. Two, Parker was afraid that the same thing that happened with Hardison would happen with her. And three, she was pretty sure Sophie wasn't interested in her like that.

So all she says is, "Someone who will protect you."

Sophie smiles a bit and responds, "But I have you for that." Parker looks at her pointedly, but Sophie still doesn't get it, so Parker just sighs and leans her head back against the couch, feeling stupid. She hated that she liked Sophie, it was so bad.

"What's wrong?" Sophie asks, and prods her gently with her finger in her rib, making Parker giggle because it tickles.

"Nothing!" she exclaims, swatting at Sophie's hand.

"You're ticklish?" Sophie asks, with a devious surprised grin. Parker doesn't like that look, and she shouldn't, because the next minute Sophie's hands are all over her, and not in a way she would usually like them to be.

"Stop!" Parker cries, giggling helplessly. She swatted at the other woman in vain, just trying to get her off of her. But Sophie's laughing too now, getting on top of her and tickling her with no mercy. "Sophie! Stop!!" Parker tries again, and finally grabs both of her wrists, holding them out to the side so Sophie drops on top of her chest heavily.

But then suddenly both of them are very aware of the position they're in, and while they're usually all over each other, it's different this time with both of them being so close to each other, and so completely out of breath. Sophie looks at Parker; with an expression that Parker isn't sure she can read. Sophie nervously licks her bottom lip, and Parker's chest is starting to rise and all more rapidly, even though the tickling had stopped.

"Sophie…" she starts in a whisper, not thinking before she spoke. "I want to…" but then she thinks about it, and stops herself.

"Want to what?" she asks her in a soft voice. Her hand falls to rest on Parker's, and Parker holds it automatically.

"Nothing," she says, looking away.

"Tell me, Parker…. please," Sophie pleads gently, knowing exactly what Parker wanted, because she wanted it to, she just didn't know why she did at that moment. She moved her face a bit closer to her, brushing her lips across Parker's lightly before closing her eyes.

"I want to kiss you," Parker admits in a quiet voice, her own eyes fluttering shut at the feel of Sophie's lips against hers. She takes a deep breath, still terrified of Sophie's answer even though Sophie was clearly thinking along the same lines as her.

"As friends?" Sophie asks her, barely above a whisper as she brushes her lips against Parker's again, just needing to feel them. She couldn't do it any other way besides friends, even if she had an asshole as a man, she was still with him.

"…As friends," Parker breathes out, her grips on Sophie's hand tightening. She didn't want it to be as friends, but she wanted to kiss her so bad that nothing else mattered.

"Okay…" Sophie finally says softly, and Parker presses her lips to the other woman, parting them to let Sophie slip her tongue in. Parker moans softly at the contact, and wraps her other arm around Sophie's neck, bringing her in closer. Sophie kisses her back tentatively, scared of all the feelings that are coming to surface, but loving every moment of it.

With each passing minute the kiss slowly becomes to turn more passionate, and now Sophie was squeezing Parkers hand as tight as she could as she gasps into her mouth, moving her hips against her slightly. Parker tangled her fingers through her dark tresses and sucked in her bottom lip lightly before kissing her chin, back to her lips, her cheek, down to her neck before sucking on it softly.

"God," Sophie breathes out as her other hand grasps at Parker's shirt and she tilts her neck to the side to give Parker more room. She had forgotten how good it felt to be with Parker in this way, even if she only experienced it for a fleeting moment during Christmas.

Parker's lips area now at the base of her ear, and her short hot bursts of breath into it before her tongue claims her earlobe is driving Sophie insane. She turns her head and crashes her lips back to Parker's, moaning hard into the other woman's mouth as she lifts up her shirt and rakes her nails against Parker's skin, making her arch her back and gasp hard.

Then it was Sophie's turn to have her lips on Parker's neck, and Parker cried out softly as Sophie bit her in just the right way, and she writhed underneath her. She wasn't expecting it to go this far, but wasn't surprised that it did either. Sophie was always touching her, always kissing her, and now that she thought about it, it was stupid to assume that didn't mean anything.

"Sophie…"she breathes out as the hand that held her hair tightened its grip, pulling her more towards her neck. She didn't know how long she had been waiting for something like this until it really happened.

But then Sophie's phone rang, making both of them jump off each other like they had just been caught doing something wrong. They both stared at each other for a moment before Sophie coughed out of the awkwardness of it and turned towards her phone, picking it up.

"Hello?" A pause, "I'm with Parker right now." Another pause then a scoff from something, "Doing _friends_ stuff, Nate, God. I'll be home for dinner since you can't get off the damn couch, stop freaking out." Sophie gets a disgruntled look on her face before she hangs up the phone; Nate probably didn't even say goodbye.

They both looked at each other before Sophie looked down, pursing her lips together. Parker didn't like that look.

But Sophie doesn't say anything she's expecting, instead she just shyly leans in and kisses her softly on the lips. "I gotta go…" she says, like she regrets it.

Parker just nods, knowing. She looks up at Sophie before kissing her again, much more longer and much more passionate than how Sophie did, but Sophie reciprocates. "Come over tomorrow?" she asks her in a whisper after they break.

"Of course," Sophie says with a little smile. "You're my best friend…"

**TBC…**


	12. Formalities

**CHAPTER TWELVE  
Formalities**

When Sophie came home to Nate, all she could do was think about Parker. She knew they had to be just friends under the current circumstances, but for some reason in Sophie's brain that didn't compute to mean that she shouldn't be having hot and heavy makeout sessions with the girl on her couch. For some reason, in her mind, Parker and her friendship was just like that. Maybe it was a little different, maybe other people wouldn't see it that way, but Parker was her happy place so it didn't really matter what anyone else thought.

Of course, she tended to go from one happy place one minute, to hell the next.

"Sophie!" Nate screamed, bound to the couch due to his foot injury. He did have crutches, but he seemed to like to make Sophie do things for him, based largely on the fact that she shot him in the foot and it was her fault after all.

But if you ask Sophie, it's Nate's fault because he hit her first.

"What?" Sophie yells back as she throws her purse on the dining room table before stalking into the living room where he lay.

"I'm hungry," he tells her.

"Well hold one moment while I pull that out of my ass for you," Sophie says, her hands on her hips. "I have to _cook_ it first, Nathan."

"Can't you just order something? You're cooking can sometimes be a little… dry."

Sophie scoffed loudly, insulted. "If you wanted to order something, you should have called yourself! You have your bloody phone!"

"Well you bitch at me every time I order the wrong thing for you!" Nate exclaims, throwing his hands into the air. "Just call for pizza or something."

"God!" Sophie exclaims before stomping back into the dining room and just flopping down in the chair. She heard the TV turn back on in the other room and she sighs before going through her purse. After ordering the pizza she still sits there, phone in hand.

She started flipping through her contacts until she found Parker, and pressing the text message button she writes, "I miss you already."

There was a moment of silence before her phone chimes, signaling a message back. When she flips it open she reads, "Then come back."

She sighed, but smiled a little. She wished she could. "I can't," she writes, then presses send. God, how she wishes she could.

After dinner, Sophie helped Nate into bed. She went to her closet and starts stripping off her clothes, getting ready to sleep. But when she comes back over to the bed in only her undergarments, Nate asks, "What is _that?"_

"What?" Sophie asked, and looked down, not knowing what he was referring to.

"On you _neck!"_ he yelled, pointing at it. Sophie's hand automatically clapped over her neck. She knew what side it was on; the side Parker was on earlier. "Is that a fucking hickey?!"

Sophie decides going near the bed right now might be a bad idea, so she backs up a few steps. She tries to play it cool. "Are you serious? Do you know how retarded you sound right now, you haven't kissed me in weeks."

"I KNOW!" Nate yells, and tries to get up but his foot prevents him from doing so. "If that stupid slut has been doing something to you I'm going to—"

"Nate!" Sophie yelled, hating that recently all he's been doing is calling Parker a slut. "It has nothing to do with Parker! It's probably a bruise from all the bloody marks you leave on me, you damn wanker!"

"That's a hickey, I'm not fucking stupid, Sophie!" Nate exclaims. He looks furious. Both with the hickey, and the fact that he can't get up and _do_ anything about it.

"Well obviously you are since it's _not!"_ Sophie screeched.

"You've been cheating on me! Damnit, you _whore!_ After all I've done for you?!"

"I'm not having sex with her!" Sophie screamed, but yet doesn't deny the other things. She just didn't care anymore. She doesn't even care about him calling her a whore; it's so repetitive now.

"Wait till I can fucking walk…" Nate warns, and gives her a look that Sophie in no way feels safe with. She backs up a couple more steps.

"What are you going to do? _Kill_ me now because you think I'm sleeping with Parker?" Sophie asks, her heart dropping to her stomach. She was afraid at the way Nate was looking at her, and really didn't want any of this to be happening right now.

"If I'm not going to have you, then no one else is! Especially not some crazy _bitch!"_ Nate yells and tries to get up another time, but once his foot reaches the floor and he puts some weight on it, he cries out in pain.

Sophie just looked at him like everything just shattered before her eyes. She shook her head at him, and started to walk away, but a softer cry of "Sophie!" filled her ears, she turned around.

"What?" she asked, the tears in her eyes threatening to spill over, Nate just basically threatened to murder her. She felt so… empty. She's sure she's supposed to feel scared or even angry… but she didn't.

"Look, I'm sorry," he says, softer this time, calming himself down. "I just…" he sighed. "Just tell me you're not sleeping with her and I'll believe you."

She looked at him seriously and said with ever ounce of honesty, because it was true, "I'm not sleeping with her, Nate. Or anyone else."

"I'm sorry," he says again, picking himself back up to lie on the bed. "I just don't want to lose you, Sophie. You're everything to me."

"Nate…" she said softly, looking at the man in front of her that a minute ago looked homicidal but now looked so vulnerable. "You're not going to lose me."

A part of her hated herself for saying that, but she knew it was true. She didn't know why she couldn't just leave. She wanted to all the time. But without her, what would Nate become? At least he gets his share of pain from the shit he dishes out on her; it makes it almost even in a way, as bloody screwed up as that logic is.

But isn't that how most abusive relationships work?

"Does she want you?" he asked her quietly, almost like he would cry at the thought. It tugged at Sophie's heart a little, but she lied to him.

"No," she says as she comes over and sits down on the end of the bed now, taking his hand in hers. "We're just friends, Nate. That's it."

"I just see the way she looks at you sometimes…" he says, looking up at her. He looked so sad, and for a fleeting moment Sophie has a thought that he could possibly be psychotically bipolar, but then it's gone and she doesn't know where that came from.

"She likes women, Nate. I'm… fairly attractive, I guess. It's just a look, she doesn't act on it."

Lies. All the lies.

"Do you swear?" he asks, and she gives him a small smile and leans down and kisses him on the forehead.

"I swear."

All the dirty, dirty lies.

He smiles at her, believing it all. She finally climbs into bed next to him, resting her head on his chest. They stayed there in silence for awhile until Nate ran his fingers through her hair and says, "I'm sorry I hit you, Sophie."

"I'm sorry I shot you," she says back.

But neither of them mean it, it's more of a formality now more than anything else.

So when Nate rolled on top of her to kiss her, it was more of a formality action to reciprocate on Sophie's part. When he kissed her neck, when his lips fell down to her breasts to wrap around one of her nipples, it was more of a formality to moan in response. When he rolled her on top of him and he slid inside of her, it was more of a formality to cry out in pleasure to make him push forwards. And when he came, it was also more of a formality to fake her own… the entire time thinking about Parker, and how badly she wished that she was the one inside of her.

**TBC…**


	13. All Tangled Up

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN  
All Tangled Up**

Thinking about Parker during her sex with Nate surprised Sophie, though thinking about it now it probably shouldn't have. She laid in bed that night, Nate rolling over on the other side, snoring heavily. She sighed and sat up, crawling out of bed silently so he wouldn't know she had left. She would just say she got up early to go shopping the next morning. But she didn't want to sleep there; it was like if her heart was pulling her back to Parker, so she left.

Sophie didn't want to mess with Parker though; after all she was still stuck in a relationship with Nate. She can't seem to bloody leave it, no matter how many times she tries. He always just lures her back in, and it wouldn't be fair to Parker if she started something during that time. They just had to be friends right now.

But even thinking about it, their 'just friends' relationship was exactly like dating someone. It's like they'd been doing it for months and neither of them realized it. How is that even possible? Are they really that _slow?_

Obviously.

Sophie took out her key to Parker's flat, not wanting to wake her if she was already asleep. When she opened the door, the apartment was dark, so she put down her purse and her jacket on the counter and lightly walked to Parker's bedroom. The door creaked a bit when she opened it, but it was so dark that she couldn't see anything. She took off her clothes – all my but her undergarments – and crawled into Parker's bed. She was tired.

But then she screamed as suddenly Parker was on top of her suddenly, pinning her down. She moved so fast it freaked Sophie out. There was something to her throat, and Sophie was pretty sure it was a knife.

Yeah, maybe sneaking into Parker's bed wasn't the best plan in the world.

"_Sophie?!"_ Parker put down the knife, and let her go, looking at her in shock.

"Who do you bloody think?!" Sophie cried out, putting a hand over her chest, trying to slow her heart rate. She was pretty sure she almost just had a heart attack. She breathed in a couple deep breaths.

"I don't know! I thought you weren't coming back until tomorrow!" Parker exclaims, laying back down on the bed heavily and rubbing her eyes roughly before yawning.

Sophie didn't answer for a minute, but then laughed just because of the situation. "It is tomorrow," she teases. "Past midnight."

"Whatever," Parker mumbled sleepily and yawned again, not caring anymore. The only thing she cared about was that Sophie was with her now, so she laid her head on the brunette's chest and wrapped and arm around her. She was so sleepy.

Sophie smiled from Parker automatically curling up on her, and she ran her fingers through her hair. They lay there for a bit, Sophie just looking down at the woman in top of her and whispered, "You're beautiful, Parker…"

"So are you," mumbles Parker, barely awake, squeezing her a bit tighter before she drifted off to sleep.

The way Sophie woke up in the morning was not normal.

She woke once she realized Parker wasn't on her anymore, and then automatically shot out her hand to find her, finding her arm and holding onto it, catching Parker before she was an inch from rolling off her own bed. Again. She popped open her eyes as she realized what just happened.

"Wha…? What?" Parker mumbled sleepily, waking up and not finding herself on the floor. She had woken up from a completely different sensation, and wasn't sure what it was until she saw Sophie had a hand on her arm, and was trying to wake up fully to look at her like she couldn't believe she did that automatically in her sleep.

"I didn't fall," Parker says as she yawns, surprised by it.

"Mmm… nope," Sophie says and rubs her eyes and rolls over in bed to face Parker. She gave her a sleepy smile and said, "Morning."

Parker smiled and inched away from the edge of the bed to lay on top of Sophie again. She had one arm and one leg thrown over her, and she nuzzled into her neck before yawning yet again. "Sleep more," she mumbles.

Sophie giggled, "Come on, Lazy. Wake up." She poked at Parker who giggled because it tickles.

"No," she whines a bit, and Sophie cocks and eyebrow and pokes her again. Parker giggles.

"Do you want me to tickle you again?"

"No!" Parker jumped up and so far off of her that she _did_ fall off the bed this time. She landed on the floor with a thud. Sophie almost fell over she laughed so hard. Parker scowled, "This isn't fair."

Sophie giggled but crawled over to the Parker's side of the bed and brought her hand down to her. Parker took it and she helped her back onto the bed. "Guess that woke you up, then." Parker just scowls again and brings the covers up over her head as she curls herself into a ball under them.

"You are_ not_ a morning person," Sophie observed, giggling again. She poked at the lump that was Parker under the covers, and Parker squealed.

"Sophie!" she complains. But Sophie just poked at her again, making her giggle. But then Parker has a wicked idea as she's under the covers, and slides her body down lower.

"Parker!" Sophie squealed, laughing, as Parker tickled her feet. "I'm going to kill you!" Parker just laughed from somewhere under the covers and went for her feet again.

"Stop!" Sophie complained, trying to get her feet away from her while giggling. Then she got fed up and lifted up the covers before literally pouncing on her, much to Parker's surprise. But unfortunately for both of them, due to the force and the angle, they both got tangled up in the blankets and fell off the bed with a resounding thud.

"Ow," Sophie groaned, and then giggled. Because you just had to at that. "I think it's dangerous for us to wake up."

"That's what I was saying," Parker replied with a tone of 'I told you so'. "Bed good, floor bad."

Sophie tried to get the covers off of her so she could get up, but she seemed to be trapped due to three of them getting all tangled together with her and Parker inside. "Help," Sophie said, half heartedly, because really it didn't matter if she got out of this. Parker was tangled on top of her, so it wasn't all that bad.

"We're stuck," is all Parker offers, not even trying to get them untangled. Sophie giggled.

Parker looked down at her then, and Sophie watched her lick her bottom lip subconsciously. Sophie looked at her lips, and knew that she probably shouldn't be doing this. But yet, that still didn't stop her from leaning up a bit and kissing her. Parker closed her eyes and kissed her back softly, wishing now that she could move her hands better in all the blanket mess, but still not being able to.

When they broke, neither of them said anything. They both knew they probably shouldn't talk about it, because then they'd have to come to the conclusion that they shouldn't be kissing all the time because of the entire complicated nature of it all. So since they both wanted to continue doing so… they stayed silent.

"Come on," Sophie said with a smile. "Let's get untangled." Her and Parker started trying to work on a way to get out of the completely tangled mess, but it took a little bit. Finally they both stood up, Parker automatically sitting back down on the bed as she gathered up her blankets off the floor to place them back on the bed. When she looked up at Sophie though, she stopped, finally seeing the entirety of her. She found herself staring before she could stop herself.

Sophie flushed a bit from the intensity of how Parker was looking at her and bit her lower lip softly before picking at her black lace underwear absentmindedly. She was wearing a matching bra, that was also almost see through. She put them on before she left for Parker's, knowing Parker would more than likely see her in them… one way or the other, and she wanted to look nice.

"I bought them the other day," she mumbled, shrugging a bit, not knowing what else to say. She wasn't going to tell her she wore them specifically for her, that would be a little forward. Maybe even make her sound desperate.

She didn't know why she was over thinking things so much now, she used to not with Parker. But she… she wanted her to feel the same way she did, even though they couldn't do anything about it.

"They're… pretty," is all Parker can say, feeling equally as awkward with the present situation. She knew she liked Sophie, she had accepted that, and she knew Sophie liked her a bit more than friends, but she didn't want to jump on the woman. It might scare her.

"Thanks," Sophie says, then wraps her arms around her stomach, feeling a bit exposed all of a sudden even though Parker was in her underwear as well, but it was just different this time. She had seen Parker like that before, this was the first time Parker had seen _her _though.

And then she noticed her nipples were hard, very intently so, poking almost through the laces in her bra. She moved her hands from her stomach to cross across her chest instantly, feeling embarrassed about it. But that's what happened when she kissed Parker, and it was worse by the way Parker just kept looking at her.

"They're just nipples," is all Parker says, trying to make her feel better about them being so alert at the moment, but it just makes Sophie flush deeper. "I mean… breakfast? Wait," Parker stopped, confused, then realized that she implied Sophie's nipples were breakfast, when she meant that they should just go have breakfast. "That's not what I meant."

Sophie giggled a bit before looking down and pursing her lips. "Breakfast would be nice," she says, before looking up at her. Parker nodded, but more because she was trying to think of breakfast as a whole and not Sophie's nipples as it. She got up, trying really hard to keep her eyes trained on Sophie's face, and then they just stood there, face to face, both in their underwear.

"Breakfast," Parker repeats softly, awkwardly.

"Right…"

But when Parker turned to walk out the door, Sophie just stared after her. She couldn't take this anymore; all the feelings she had. They felt like they were ready to burst inside of her, rendering her completely unable to think about breakfast or anything else besides the time she saw Parker's boobs, and how she'd like to see them again. It was all so screwed up, but she thought she might love Parker a little bit, and pretending they didn't mean anything to each other like that was starting to kill her.

So her feet carried her quickly over to Parker, and she pushed her up against the far wall before her lips were on hers, making Parker gasp at the sudden intrusion, but closed her eyes and groaned softly.

"I can't bloody take this anymore, Parker," Sophie whispered against her lips between kisses. "I just can't…" Her lips fell from her mouth to her neck and she kissed it softly, her hands wandering up Parker's smooth pale stomach, coming to rest on her breasts. Parker gasped and grabbed onto Sophie's back as she bit her bottom lip as Sophie claimed her neck.

Both of them knew this was probably a bad idea, but neither of them could find it in them to care anymore.

**TBC…**


	14. More Than That

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN  
More Than That**

Sophie fell back against the softness of Parker's bed as the thief crawled on top of her body slowly, before her lips met hers for another passionate kiss. Sophie wrapped her arms around Parker's neck, pulling her against her body, the heat between them seeming to escalate with every passing moment. Parker ran her hand slowly up Sophie's tanned stomach, coming to rest on her ribs as she pushed her body into her more, making them both moan softly against each other's lips.

"This is bad," Sophie whispered against her lips, though still through kissing her.

"I know," Parker breathlessly says as her lips find her way to Sophie's neck, making Sophie tangle her hands in Parker's blonde hair, biting her lower lip softly from everything she was feeling. It was almost like closure, yet so much like the climax.

Sophie arched her back into the other woman as her hands slid down her back, coming to rest on her ass before she pulled her more into her, making Parker gasp softly before bringing her lips back up to kiss her again. "We should stop," Sophie gasps out, just needing to voice it out loud, even though she didn't want to.

"I know," is all Parker says, but yet the two keep kissing, wandering hands finding places they know they shouldn't be right now. "God," Parker breathes as Sophie's hands are back on her back, and she snaps off her bra with just one movement. Parker sits up for a moment to shrug it off, before her lips on hers again, and Sophie's fingers are looped in the side of Parker's underwear, sliding them down a bit to the middle of her thighs.

"Jesus, Parker…" Sophie moans as Parker snaps off the front clasp on her bra and pushes it off of her before her hand coming to rest of one of Sophie's breasts, sliding her thumb softly over one of her nipples, making Sophie cry out softly and push her hips towards her.

"Sophie… I want to…" Parker gasps against her lips, but Sophie already knows. She's working at her own underwear now, just trying to move it down just enough so she could feel Parker against her.

"As friends?" Sophie whispers, but knows it's not as Parker's lower body finally comes in contact with hers. She wants to spread her legs so badly for her, but her own underwear was constricting her movement.

"No," Parker tells her softly as she gets off of Sophie just enough to pull her own underwear off her own body. She grasps at Sophie's then and tells her, "As more than that," as she starts to slide Sophie's off of her body, because she wasn't going to lie to her, she wasn't going to pretend anymore.

Sophie knows she shouldn't be doing this. She had never cheated on another person as long as she's lived, and even though Nate is an abusive alcoholic jackass, it still didn't seem right. But with Parker naked on top of her, and all of the feelings that went along with it, all of the desire that she had, all of the _need_ she's had for this woman for so long, and how much she realizes she loves her, she just had to breathlessly tell her, "…Okay."

Parker's lips wrapped around one of Sophie's nipples, making the older woman close her eyes and gasp loudly at the feeling. Parker's hand rested on her ribs before she curled her fingers and scratched lightly down Sophie's side, making Sophie grab at her back and utter, "Oh my god," the anticipation feeling like it's been building between them for months, and she just couldn't take it.

She needed to touch her.

She grabbed Parker's shoulders and roughly flipped her over on to her back, before crashing her lips to hers as her hand wandered over her breast, down her stomach, to between her lips. Parker moaned hard and spread her legs wider; pushing her hips towards Sophie so much they were completely off the bed. "Sophie, _please_," is all she can get out as she grabs her back as Sophie presses down lightly against her clit, making Parker break the contact with the kiss to slam her head back down against the pillow to cry out loudly, even the lightest touch from Sophie being too much to handle in that moment.

Sophie had never done this with a woman before, but she found it didn't matter at all. All she wanted to do was pleasure Parker, and it became more instinct rather than experience. She looked down at the woman beneath her, who was panting hard as one hand slams against the headboard of the bed from what Sophie was doing to her. It was the hottest thing she had ever seen in her life, so when she slipped two fingers inside of Parker and she felt her clench around her and pull her in deeper, Sophie almost lost it just from how it looked flashing across Parker's face… and how it felt to finally be inside of her.

"Oh god, Sophie!" Parker breathes out, "Oh my god… oh _god…."_ And then she's grasping at the headboard with both hands, her hips so far off the bed and pushing into Sophie's hand with such force that Sophie doesn't even know if she can handle pushing against her that hard, but it doesn't matter. Parker's doing most of the work herself, which leaves Sophie to look down at what's happening between Parker's legs, which in turn makes her finally use her other hand to push Parker's hips back down against the bed hard, stilling her.

"Stop," Sophie tells her, and Parker looks confused before Sophie bends down and then has her mouth on her, making Parker scream out, "Fuck!" trying with everything she has to not buck her hips against Sophie's face, but it's hard. Sophie's finger start moving again inside of her, and Parker is so high up she knows she going to fall soon. She's screaming and panting and slamming against the head of her bad so hard she thinks she hears it splinter, and when Sophie curls her fingers inside of her Parker becomes completely still… before a tidal wave of nothing but pure pleasure and a feeling which she was slightly terrified to identify as love, pour out of her as she screams Sophie's name, like she needed to confirm that it was really her that just made her have the best feeling she had ever felt in her entire life.

Sophie thought Parker would need more time to come down from her high, but before she knows it Parker has wrapped her hand around the back of Sophie's neck before she pulls her in for a kiss. It's rushed, needy, desperate. Parker needs to feel all of Sophie, and Sophie is feeling so many emotions right now that she needs her to do it before stupid things fall out of her mouth.

Parker's hand has already made it's way between Sophie's legs, making Sophie gasp hard against her lips as her elbows give way that were propping her up and she falls on top of her, pushing her hips into her as she lays her head on Parker's shoulder, her moans and pants of breath tickling Parker's ear.

"I need you…" Sophie gasps out, finding it a better way to say 'I love you' during the given moment, not wanting to freak her out and make her stop. "God, I need you, Parker…" and then she cries out loudly and her hand grips Parker's shoulder as Parker slides three fingers inside of her, filling her entirely, and she closes her eyes tightly before gathering the strength to grasp the bed to push herself up to a sitting position before she started moving her hips up and down against Parker's fingers.

She's flushed, sweating, riding Parker's fingers as her hair tumbles around her face as she looks down at her, her breathing coming out in short gasps as she locks eyes with her. Then she brings her fingers up to her lips, sliding them inside her mouth, tasting Parker on them.

"Fuck, Sophie…" Parker breathes out as she watches her, finding that the single most erotic thing she's ever seen a woman do for her. But she was wrong on that; because it was what Sophie did next that was the single most erotic thing she's ever seen in her entire _life._

She brings her fingers slowly down her body, almost painfully slow as they trail over every dip, every curve. Then they rest between her own legs as she continues to ride Parker's fingers, Parker too dumbstruck by what Sophie's doing to even move them on her own anymore. And when Sophie starts to move her hand, teasing her own clit as she uses Parker's fingers for her own pleasure, Parker thinks her own heart might have stopped, and she can feel her walls start to contract again inside of her, without Sophie touching her at all.

It was when Sophie started moaning harder, her eyes still locked on to Parkers, her mouth opening to gasp out, _"Parker…"_ in the absolute sexiest way Parker has ever heard her name being said by another person, that Parker released again, the contraction making her curl the fingers that were inside of Sophie so hard against the other woman's g spot. Sophie gasped hard and her fingers that were teasing her clit sped up so fast it almost hurt her arm, but then she tightens hard and screams, a wave of her juices flowing out of her like honey, soaking herself, soaking parker underneath her, and even soaking the bed sheets, before she collapsed on top of her, thinking fleetingly for a moment that she just died… but died so completely happy.

Parker wiped her soaked hand on the sheets, not caring about them much. She could wash them, or replace them even, it didn't matter. She looked over at Sophie, who had rolled off her slightly, her eyes still closed, still breathing hard as her heart was beating a million miles and hour.

Parker just moved down a bit so she could lay her head on Sophie's chest, not knowing what to say. Sophie didn't know either, so she just wrapped her arms around the other girl and tried so very hard to not think about how much worse they just complicated everything.

**TBC…**


	15. Burning Bridges

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN  
Burning Bridges**

"Don't…" Parker called out to her, moving a couple steps towards the door. She stopped and looked at her before requesting softly, "Please."

"I have to," Sophie told her, looking at her with her eyes filled with regret. "He'll go ballistic if I don't come back. He'll come _here_. He thinks already you and I…" she sighed, her hand reaching for the doorknob before smiling softly at her like it's almost amusement. "Well, he's right now, anyhow."

Parker bit her lower lip softly as she looked down, making a face like she hated the idea but didn't want to show it too much. "Well what are we…" she paused, then rethought what she was going to ask. "What _are_ we?" she asks, looking up at her.

"I don't know," Sophie said softly, honestly. "I didn't want to do this to you… I screwed up." Parker looked at her like she couldn't believe she was saying that, and Sophie revised quickly, waving her hands a bit. "No, no, I'm not saying that I regret it. I don't, Parker. It's just… complicated now. I mean, Nate…"

"What about him?" Parker asks, folding her arms over her chest, looking defensive. "He beats you, are you saying you still want to stay with him?"

"I never want to stay with him anymore," Sophie tells her, the shrugs. "But I always still do, don't I?"

"Well great then," Parker says, looking angry now. "I'm glad you got fucking me out of your system. Glad I could help with that." The sarcasm was heavy, and she shook her head and averted her gaze to the wall instead of Sophie.

"That's not what this was!" Sophie exclaims, offended herself that Parker would even assume that. "You're more to me than just a bloody shag!"

"Yeah, I can tell." More sarcasm.

"Parker, stop it," Sophie tells her, looking at her seriously. "Don't be a child about this."

Parker looked at her finally, raising her eyebrows. But she didn't yell at her like Sophie expected after the words fell from her mouth and she regretted saying them. "Yeah, you need to go now, Sophie."

"Parker…"

"Please leave now," is all Parker says, and looks at her expectantly.

"Don't do this," Sophie says, feeling desperation all of a sudden. "I'm going to leave him, I swear. I'm going to leave him for_ you_, okay? Just… give me time."

But Sophie's 'time' still wasn't up in two weeks, and when she came to Parker's that afternoon with obvious makeup on her neck, Parker blew up.

"He's dead," is all she says after she takes one look at her, and grabs her coat, ready to walk out the door and do something about it.

"Parker! No!" Sophie exclaims, grabbing one of Parker's arms to stop her.

Parker whipped around to face her, anger and sadness written all over her face. "No, Sophie! I'm done with this! This is just _bullshit!"_

"He's having a rough time right now," Sophie started, making excuses for him. Parker just stared at her like she had no idea who was standing in front of her anymore.

"Yeah?" she asks venomously. "And when he doesn't, is _that _when you're going to break it off with him? Or will that not happen because you'll get a little taste of the good life with him, and like an _idiot_ convince yourself that it won't happen again?"

"That's not fair," Sophie tells her. "I can hardly tell him in this state he's in, he might kill me, you know that..."

"Does is it even matter to you that this is killing me _now?!" _Parker screams, and Sophie looks surprised and backs up a few steps out of shock. "That this has been killing me for _months_ now?! To look at you like this?! To not be able to do _anything _about it?!"

"Parker…" Sophie tries.

But Parker's angry, and her eyes at starting to mist over as she tries desperately not to cry about it. "You come over here with all these marks on you and it just _rips me apart!_ You come over here to be with me to hide from reality, but this isn't your fantasy, Sophie! I'm not going to be that anymore! I'm either your reality of I'm _nothing!"_

"Parker please," Sophie says, trying to reach out to her but Parker moves away from her.

"I love you, you fucking _moron!_ I can't just… I can't just… I…" and then she's crying, and Sophie's looking at her like she wasn't sure if she heard her correctly. But she knows she did, and now she feels like she's about to cry, both from the words and for seeing Parker in the state she was currently in.

"You love me?" Sophie asks in a whisper.

"How is that not _obvious?!" _Parker yells through frustrated tears. She furiously wipes them away and takes a deep breath, calming herself down. Her bottom lip threatens to tremble again and she bites on it to keep it under control. She didn't want to just scream it out like that, but she was emotional, finally breaking after what seemed like forever, and now that it was out there she couldn't do much about it anyway.

Sophie took a hesitant step closer to her, not knowing if she was going to back off again or not. But Parker stayed where she was, and Sophie took another step towards her before taking Parker's hand in hers. "Parker… look at me. Please," Sophie requests softly.

Parker doesn't look at her for a minute, first taking it upon herself to stop crying. She hated crying. Finally after a deep breath she turned her head to look at Sophie, and Sophie brought her other hand up to rest lightly on her cheek. "If you're about to tell me I'm a nice girl but it'll never be like that with us, can you just… not right now?" Parker asks, not thinking she could handle something like that right now, and Sophie rolls her eyes lightly.

"Stop being pessimistic. Shut up, and listen for a second, okay?" Sophie demands softly, and Parker looks annoyed at being told to shut up, but her annoyance is gone once Sophie starts talking again. "Parker, you are absolutely everything to me, and while I didn't see that for awhile, I'm not so damn blind anymore. You're what makes me happy, you're what makes me feel good about myself, what makes me wake up in the morning. I feel more alive with you than I ever had with _anyone_ in my entire life. And I love you, so fucking much. You're what I want, what I need."

"But?" Parker asks softly, knowing there's a 'but' in there somewhere.

"But…" Sophie says, sighing softly. "I'm terrified to leave him, okay? I'm afraid of what he'll do to me, what he'll do to _you_."

"I can take care of myself," Parker tells her seriously. "And I can take care of you."

"And if he pulls a gun on you? If he's ready to kill you? What then? Are you ready to kill him before he kills you?" Sophie asks her, just wanting her to think about that for a moment, think about how taking a life, even in self defense, isn't easy.

"You act like I haven't killed anyone before," Parker says, and Sophie's eyes go wide. Her hand that was on her cheek falls, and she takes a step back from her.

"What?" she asks in disbelief. She knew Parker was a thief, but a murderer? Suddenly it's Sophie doesn't know who's in front of her.

"I blew up my foster father's house… while he was inside," she tells her calmly, like it's nothing, because it wasn't for her. She was in a kill or be killed situation then, and being nothing more than a small child, it was the only way to protect herself.

"Oh," is all Sophie says. She doesn't know how she's supposed to feel about that. She knows about Parker's past with that man, far more than she ever wanted to know. She hated that Parker was beaten and raped when she was only ten, and while Parker never sat down and talked about it with Sophie, her little comments here and there that would be relevant to whatever conversation they'd be having, steered Sophie into the direction of that assumption.

But she still killed someone. Though it was obviously in self defense. Sophie still didn't know how to feel about that.

"I don't like abusive people," is all she says.

"I don't want you to kill him, Parker…" Sophie tells her. She doesn't think she'd be able to live with herself because it'd be because of her.

"Well then I'll just hurt him very, very badly then," Parker tells her. She wasn't budging on the decision, and Sophie hated that this was all over her. All this bloody violence is always because of her.

"Please just… don't do anything right in this moment. I'll…" Sophie sighed a bit, chewing on her bottom lip, scared to make this decision. "I… I won't go back to him. I'll stay here."

"And then we're sitting chickens."

"Ducks," Sophie corrects.

"Whatever," Parker says and looks at her seriously. "What are you doing?" she asked her in a soft voice, it sounded more like Sophie only said that to appease Parker, not that she really wanted to stay. Like she'd rather just go back to him and take it rather than stick up for herself, even though she's fought him all the way though it.

Sophie shrugged a bit and said with a bit of a laugh, though it wasn't funny. But she had to make a decision, and she knew however scary it was, it was the right one to make. "You know… burning bridges… and all that. Time I finally do, right?"

"What bridge? It was the car that got burned," Parker asks, confused now.

"No, Parker. It's an expression. Means I need to… I need to just let him go. Move on. Maybe it has gotten to a place that I just…" she sighed and shook her head, moving to sit in the armchair. She put her head in her hands. "I mean I can't just… keep it on, can I? Let him hurt me like this. Hurt him back just as bad. You don't want me to… and I'm just… I'm scared."

"Sophie," Parker said as she comes over to her to sit on the arm of the chair, running her fingers through her hair to comfort her a bit before putting an arm on her shoulder. She's gotten a bit better at comforting since this entire ordeal started. "We'll be okay. _You'll_ be okay. I promise."

"How can you promise that?" Sophie asks softly before taking her head out of her hands and turning to look at her.

Parker just smiled. "Because I'm your knight, remember?"

**TBC…**


	16. Cannabis

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN  
Cannabis**

"You need to relax," Parker tells Sophie as she lies in her bed and watches Sophie pace back and forth across the room, muttering things to herself and occasionally chewing on her thumbnail.

"He's coming," is all she says. Back and forth again, wringing her hands this time in nervousness. Parker just cocked an eyebrow at him.

"It's been an hour. You're usually over her for at least three. He probably won't even come looking until the morning cause he'll figure you went shopping or something like always – then later he'll realize you're really gone," she tells her, just wanting Sophie to look like she wants to vomit all over her carpet. Because really, she didn't want to have to clean that up.

"That's what he wants us to think," she says, still pacing. Parker rolled her eyes before reaching over into her top drawer of her bed side table and pulled out a joint. She waved it at her a bit.

"You need to calm down, you're like paranoid delusional now. Come smoke some of this," she offers. Sophie stops and looks at her, she's not wringing her hands anymore; she's got her hands on her hips.

"I am_ not_ smoking that. Neither are you," she tells her. Drugs are just bad news, even if it's just a plant.

"But _Mom!"_ Parker whines, mocking her before smirking and putting it between her lips. Sophie wasn't about to tell her what she could and couldn't do. Sophie looked flustered at being deliberately disobeyed.

"_Parker,"_ she stresses as Parker brings the lighter up. She looks at Sophie pointedly and flicks it in an over dramatic way.

As she exhaled a long spout of smoke she said, "You really need remove that stick from your ass, I'm sure it's gotta be hurting by now."

Sophie crossed her arms over her chest, offended by that. "I do not have a stick up my ass, Parker! You just shouldn't be smoking that, especially when Nate's about to come over here bloody_ looking_ for me, do you want to deal with that _high?"_

Parker sighed heavily before placing it between her lips again, "He's not coming right now, _relax." _She sucked on the joint and exhaled out her nose before finally taking the joint back between her fingers.

"I can't relax!" Sophie practically screeches, and Parker winces a bit from the pitch. "My abusive ex boyfriend, who doesn't even _know_ yet that he's an ex, mind you, is about to come over here and chop me and my girlfriend into a million itty bitty bloody pieces. I'm apparently also a _lesbian _now, which I'd be lying if I said that wasn't freaking me out a bit too. And then what about work? What do we tell Hardison and Eliot? We all aren't going to be working together after this, so what now? I can't bloody handle all this rubbish right now!"

Parker just blinks at her little outburst, and holds out the joint again. Sophie's out of breath, frustrated, and on the verge of breaking down. She stares at it for only a second before she gives up, not being able to take her own brain anymore, and says, "Yeah, thanks," and sits down next to Parker before taking it.

Maybe she did need it right now. Parker smirked.

Sophie took a drag from the joint and closed her eyes as she fell heavily on to the bed, and then exhaled. She still had her eyes closed as she lay there, and Parker stared down at her. "Everything will be okay, Sophie."

"No it won't," is all Sophie says before opening her eyes and taking another drag before passing it to Parker. "We're going to die."

"You're being awfully dramatic today, more than usual," Parker says and lays down next to her. She took another drag before she turned her head to look at Sophie. "Love conquers all in fairytales," she tells her.

"HA!" Sophie laughed shortly, then looked over at Parker who was narrowing her eyes at her outburst. "Sorry," she apologized. "Just… you're entirely too optimistic."

"Didn't you just tell me I was pessimistic earlier?"

"Well you switch rapidly. Like a bipolar person," Sophie says, then smirks. Parker made a face and handed her the joint.

"Thanks," was the reply, heavy with sarcasm. "Glad you've diagnosed me."

Sophie giggled and took another drag before sitting up to put it out in the ashtray. When she laid back down, she looked over at Parker, who was still looking disgruntled about the bipolar comment, so she giggled again and kissed her on the tip of her nose. "Stop pouting."

"I'm not pouting," Parker protests, but yet still pouts more.

"You know," Sophie said, amused with the situation probably more than she should be due to the cannabis starting to take effect. "I don't know if you've heard, but when your mouth is like this," she traces an upside down smile on her lips. "It's usually called a frown. But I know the cure."

"Oh, you do, do you?" Parker asked, but already her frown was starting to falter from Sophie's determined look on the subject.

"Mhm," Sophie said with a smirk and then leans in and kisses her softly. Parker still tries to keep her frown by not reciprocating, only because she was stubborn, but Sophie wasn't put off. She kissed her lips, her cheeks, her nose, her chin, her forehead… she was covering her in kisses. Parker finally giggled and brought her lips to Sophie's as she wrapped her arms around her neck.

"You're lame," is all Parker says.

"Yeah but I'm your kind of lame," Sophie says, then cracks up and falls into her as Parker groans from the statement. "Bloody hell… that was bad, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Parker says and collapses into a fit of giggles, both of them starting to feel the effects of the drug now. After the giggling as subsided, Sophie lays her head on Parker's chest and the two are silent for a bit.

"I think I can hear my hair…_ growing_," Sophie says finally, then giggles again.

"You're _stoned_," Parker says with a laugh, looking down at her.

"I want to have sex with you… but I don't want to move," Sophie tells her, since she did all of a sudden, but found she was too lazy to move.

Parker smirked and said, "Do you?"

"Yeah," Sophie says, but closes her eyes. Being on top of Parker felt really nice. Being high was pretty nice. She could remember why she was supposed to be scared, but for some reason it felt like it didn't matter anymore.

Parker smirked some more and sat up a bit, rolling Sophie off of her. Sophie made an indistinctive noise of complaint and mumbled, "What are you doing?"

"Having sex with you," Parker explains, and Sophie looks confused.

"That usually involves both parties being active," she tells her, and she was in no way feeling like moving.

"Not all the time," Parker says as she slides down Sophie's body, and starts helping her out of her skirt.

"You're not even kissing me," Sophie complains softly. "Just undressing me with no foreplay isn't very romantic."

Parker rolls her eyes a bit as she throws Sophie's skirt on the floor, then lifts up her shirt a bit to start placing butterfly kisses on the stomach. Sophie smiled and closed her eyes, making a sound of contentment as Parker slides her underwear down her thighs and then off her body.

"Mmm…" Sophie sighs as Parker's kisses get lower, down one of her thighs as she parts them gently, moving to kiss the inside of one softly. "But don't you want me to do anything to you?" Sophie asks her softly, finding sex to usually be a joint effort.

"You'll owe me one," Parker says with a little smile as she kisses up Sophie's thigh before resting between her legs. Sophie moaned softly and spread her legs wider, appreciating how absolutely amazing Parker was with her tongue.

Parker was down there for a while, prolonging it as long as she could, just doing it more to relax Sophie more than anything. But as time went on, Sophie's breathing started to pick up significantly, and one of her hands grabbed at the bed sheets as she gasped, finally moving her own hips in desperation to have Parker's tongue stay on her clit, but Parker had other ideas.

After while Sophie started to get frustrated, because while Parker wanted to make her last as long as she could, Sophie just wanted to fall off the edge. She ran her fingers down her stomach while Parker was kissing her thighs again, trying to get Sophie to come back down for a moment after getting so close. But when Sophie's fingers reached her clit, Parker slapped them lightly.

"You need to stop with this masturbation habit of yours," Parker said, smirking.

"I'm impatient," Sophie gasps out softly, and instead runs her hand up to play with one of her nipples, because hell, if she can't be down there, she's going to be somewhere.

"I'm going to make you cum, Sophie. Just when I want you to, not before," Parker says, but Sophie doesn't seem to want to listen, because she's still teasing her own nipple. Parker sighed, but still had a bit of a smile on her face, "One day, I'm going to tie you up so you can't make me go faster than I want to."

Sophie smirked, "I might like that a little bit too much."

"Yeah well, I'll make sure of it," Parker says with a smile, before coming up to kiss her. Sophie closed her eyes and moaned softly into the other woman's mouth while Parker's hand slid down her body to between her legs, slipping a couple fingers inside of her. Sophie gasped hard and held on to Parker's back.

"God," she panted out against her lips, her back arching a bit as she kissed her a bit more furiously, thinking hopefully if she eggs Parker on more that she'll finish her quickly, because she needed it. She made a point to squeeze her muscles inside of her, pulling Parker in deeper and moaned hard into her mouth.

But Parker was determined on being slow, which ruined Sophie's original plan of being inactive. "Please," she begged her, moving her hips against Parker's hand. She was panting, her heart was racing, and she needed it so bad that she felt like her head might explode. "Damnit Parker… I'll do anything."

"Anything?" Parker asked, smirking as she made a point to press against Sophie's g spot then, making her cry out loudly, but then take it away just as quickly and stilling her hand.

"I'd do anything for you, anyway," Sophie tells her breathlessly, looking at her. That make's Parker smile and she kisses her softly, starting to build up a steady rhythm. Sophie gasps and moans against Parker's lips, her nails digging in slightly into the skin on her back. Suddenly she's so high, screaming Parker's name so loudly, and then come's crashing down… but not in the way she was hoping.

There was a loud bang on the apartment door in the other room, "Sophie, you dirty _whore!"_

Parker and Sophie were off of each other so fast that Parker almost fell off the bed. Sophie looked like she was possibly going to have a panic attack, and Parker's eyes widened as she looked towards the noise, then back to Sophie. "Get dressed, now!" Parker hisses at her as she ran into her living room to get her knives. Strapping them to her wrists, under her long sleeved shirt, she ran back in the bedroom just as Sophie finished putting on her skirt.

"Parker! Open the door, Parker! I know Sophie's in there! Bitch is so loud the whole fucking complex can hear her!" Nate yelled from the other side of the door, pounding on it hard.

"Out the window," Parker told her.

"What?" Sophie asked in disbelief.

"We're fucking stoned, Sophie. Now would not be the time to do this," she tells her and pushes her towards the window. "Go!" she hisses at her.

"Where are we going to go?" Sophie asks her as she puts one foot out the window, her heart in her throat, terrified.

"Just get to my car, we'll figure it out," Parker tells her in a whisper, and helps her out the window. "Go, now!" she tells her as she hears her own door splintering. Sophie takes one last look at her before running around the side of the building as Parker slips out the window just as she hears her door break, and runs after her.

**TBC…**


	17. Safe House

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN  
Safe House**

"Go! _Drive!"_ Sophie shrieked at her as she made erratic hand gestures towards the wheel as she sees Nate stick his head out the window they had exited and try to climb out of it.

"Will you stop _yelling_ at me?!" Parker cried as she tries to stick the key in the ignition. "You're freaking me out!"

"PARKER!" Sophie shrieked again as Nate is out the window, and she grabs her gun in her purse, cocking it just to be safe.

"Don't fire that thing!" Parker yells at her before she steps on the gas and they peel out. Sophie turns around and looks at Nate as he tries to get back to his car, but he couldn't run, his foot is still not fully healed since the last time she shot him.

Sophie's heart is racing a million miles an hour and she's pretty sure she's having a panic attack. Her breathing is shallow, and her chest feels heavy. Parker looks over at her as she hears her having trouble breathing and utters, "Shit," before reaching back behind her seat to find a paper bag that was once used for McDonalds. She hands it to her. "Here, breathe in this!"

Sophie takes it and puts it around her nose and mouth and tries to breathe, after awhile being able to do so without the bag. She puts it down and then puts her head in her hands. While she was always terrified of what Nate would do to her, this time it seemed even worse because she wasn't just fearing for herself, she was fearing for Parker too.

"Where are we going?" Sophie asked her as she took her head out of her hands and looked out the window.

"Somewhere safe," is all Parker says. But when they stop outside of Hardison's house ten minutes later, Sophie freaks out.

"No! No Parker, I don't want him to know!" she tells her, looking at the house and then back at her.

"He already does," Parker tells her as she parks the car, then braces herself for it.

"WHAT?!" Sophie shrieked. "I told you not to tell anyone! You _lied _to me!"

"He's my best friend, Sophie! He already knew I liked you before _I_ even knew, like he wasn't going to find out what I was hiding eventually? Just get in the house!" Parker tells her and opens the car door.

"No!" Sophie tells her, and stays put.

"Don't make me drag you in there," Parker tells her seriously. "We need to get inside."

"I can't believe you told him! You have totally_ ruined _the trust I had with you!" Sophie screams at her, feeling betrayed. She had asked Parker not to tell anyone, and she did. That was… Sophie didn't even know how to express how angry she was with her right now.

"Well I'll deal with that later, right now my first priority is keeping you safe now _get inside!_"

Sophie screeches a bit, so furious with her right now but opens the car door and gets outside before slamming it hard. "I can't believe you did this to me!" she yells, just feeling the need to just scream at her.

"Guys! GUYS!" came a voice from the doorway, and both women looked up to see Hardison. "Ya'll are gonna wake up my neighbors, will you stop screaming?"

Sophie makes another frustrated scream before stomping past Hardison and inside the house. She felt so humiliated.

"Sorry," Parker says as she comes inside, and Hardison closes the door behind her. "She's pissed at me."

"I can see that," Hardison replies, and looks over at Sophie who had collapsed on to his couch. "Nine one one, then?" he asks Parker, and she nods. "I'll make the call," he tells her, and takes out his phone before going into the other room.

Sophie was crying now. In one night everything she had worked so hard for, that damn image she worked her ass off to obtain was ruined. Hell it was ruined far before she even knew, and she had been walking around being all over Nate in front of him and it was just so embarrassing. Her whole life was bloody embarrassing.

Parker had deliberately disobeyed her wishes and fucked up the trust she had with her, and yeah, Sophie got that her was her best friend and they told each other everything, but it wasn't her secret to tell.

"Sophie?"

Sophie ignored her, looked the other way and folded her arms over her chest as she tried to stop crying.

"Sophie," Parker says in a quiet voice as she came over and sat down on the couch next to her. Sophie moved over a bit, away from her. Parker tried to put her hand on her leg, but Sophie moved it.

"I don't want to talk to you right now," Sophie tells her, sniffing a bit as she wipes away her tears.

"I'm sorry," Parker tells her. "But he knows everything about me, and plus he asked me why I set Nate's car on fire."

"How did he know it was you? Nate didn't even figure it out," Sophie asked her, not believing her.

"He knows I like to set things on fire," she tells her, and Sophie rolled her eyes. "And he knows my preferred accelerant; him and Eliot checked out the vehicle for Nate to see who did it. He knew it was me so he didn't tell him."

"Whatever," Sophie replied. She still didn't want to talk to her.

"Sophie… I love you, I didn't mean to make you upset with me," Parker tells her. "I just… I need someone to talk to sometimes."

"And what am I then? Rubbish?" Sophie asks, then shakes her head. "Figures, everyone who says they love me ends up hurting me."

"_Don't…"_ Parker says dangerously, seriously offended now. "Don't you_ dare_ put me in the same group as him."

"I trusted you," is all Sophie says as she wipes away a tear.

"Yeah, and I trusted you to break it off with Nate before this. I never wanted to be your dirty little secret."

Sophie looks at her then, "Is that what you think I regard you as, then?"

"Well you haven't proved otherwise," Parker says, and shakes her head before running her fingers through her hair.

Sophie looked at her for a moment, feeling bad that that's what Parker had thought, but it's instantly gone when she sees who walks through the door.

"_YOU TOLD ELIOT?!"_

"Damn," Eliot says as she holds his hands over his ears from the decibel. "That's the kind of welcome the Calvary gets now?"

"Hardison just called him…" Parker says, apologetically, but it doesn't help.

"I hate you!" Sophie screams at her. She doesn't mean it, but she's just angry. Her humiliation was so much worse now. She gets up and storms past Hardison and into his bedroom, closing the door with a loud slam.

"Guess I ain't gonna be sleeping in my own bed tonight," Hardison says as she looks back at the room disgruntled, but then looks back to Parker, who looks on the verge of tears herself. "Crap."

"Hey… hey, Parker? Don't be doin' all that, girl. Everything's gonna be fine," he tells her as he sits next to her on the couch and takes her hand. She bites her lower lip hard, trying desperately not to cry and she just shakes her head no.

Eliot comes over to them, sitting on the other side of Parker. He cracks his knuckles and says in the low voice, "Nate ain't gonna hurt either of you, darlin'. Promise. The fucking…" he shook his head, furious he didn't know until now. "Drunk bastard."

"She hates me…" Parker lets out quietly and takes a big breath to try to calm down her tears that were threatening to spill over.

"No she doesn't," Hardison tells her, and puts his arm around her. Parker buried her face in his chest and he told her, "She's just angry. She'll get over it."

Parker started to cry into his shirt, and mumbled, "I was just trying to help her…"

"I know, _she_ knows, okay? Just… give her time," Hardison says and rubs the girls arm a bit in comfort.

Eliot's still angry though, with the entire situation. The fact that Nate had turned into some woman beating asshole was so fucked up. He had liked the man; he had liked him a lot. Trusted him, and now this? For two years he didn't know that this was going on?

"What are we gonna do with Nate?" Eliot asked him, trying to keep his anger in control.

"I don't know, man," Hardison says, with a shrug, still trying to calm down Parker's crying.

"I want to hurt him," Eliot says, his eyes flashing dangerously.

"I ain't opposed to the idea," Hardison tells him seriously. "But we all gotta… we all gotta go somewhere.

"I ain't running away from the bastard," Eliot tells him. He doesn't run.

"Nah, not what I mean. You can deal with him in your own way and then we can all just… pick up and start over. Somewhere else," Hardison says. He looks over at him, "We're sticking together, even without Nate."

Eliot nodded. They had been together for three years, survived splitting up more times than they can count. They were a family now, even if one of their own had betrayed them.

Parker sniffed and wiped her tears away before sitting up. "I'm gonna… I'm gonna go… try to talk to her. I guess," she says before standing up.

But she stops, taking a deep breath before turning to Hardison and asking, her voice breaking from the question. "Do you think she still loves me?"

"Oh, honey," Hardison says and gives her a small smile. "Of course she does."

**TBC…**


	18. The Match That Starts The Fire

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN  
The Match That Starts The Fire**

When Parker took a hesitant step into Hardison's room where Sophie was currently hiding in, both Hardison and Eliot winced as Sophie started screaming at her before Parker closed the door behind her.

"So… what's up with the whole… lesbian aspect, here?" Eliot asked him, because while he knew Parker was into women, the last person he thought she would end up with would be Sophie.

"It's a long, complicated story man," Hardison said and shook his head. If he was to be honest, he didn't think Parker could land Sophie either. Not that she couldn't pick up the most beautiful women, because she could, but Sophie was different. Sophie was always… Nate's.

But then again, Nate ended up being an asshole.

"When did this happen?" Eliot asked. He wasn't much for getting involved in the lives of his coworkers, but Nate seemed to have screwed that all to hell with threatening bodily harm to two of them.

"Officially? Two weeks ago. If you ask me it's been months though with these two, Parker's known about what Nate's been doing to her for awhile now, playing battered women's shelter, really," Hardison said, shaking his head. He still couldn't believe he had to drag it out of her. They were a family; the horrible secrets wasn't helping their cause much.

"It's fucked up they never told us," Eliot said, angry with it as well. They worked with this man, they were friendly with him, regarded him as someone they could trust. For him to be doing that to someone they care about, to two people they care about, it just wasn't about to be taken lightly.

"Hear the screaming?" Hardison asked, pointing to his bedroom door. "That'd be why."

"YOU'VE HUMILIATED ME!" Sophie screamed at Parker, who had decided going anywhere closer than five feet from Sophie might be a very bad idea.

"I'm trying to protect you!" Parker yelled, angry that Sophie couldn't see that. She started waving her hands at the door, indicating Hardison and Eliot behind it into the other room. "They're who we can trust! They can help us, Sophie! Having Eliot is like guaranteeing that nothing will go wrong! Or have you forgotten what he_ does?!"_

"Of course I haven't bloody forgotten!" Sophie yelled, hating for a fleeting moment that she knew Parker was right. "But I…! But I…! _Arrgggg!"_ she screamed, hitting the wall with her fist, just needing to bloody hit something, making Parker jump a bit.

What Sophie always said: Nate only hit her… when she hit him first. The fact that Parker just thought of that, didn't make her feel any better about this situation.

"Sophie, calm down," Parker said, putting her hands up a bit. But Sophie was furious, humiliated, scared, and felt trapped. Her façade had crumbled around her, leaving her feeling exposed… and she blamed Parker for it.

"This is all your fault," Sophie told her, eyes flashing. Parker didn't like that look. She also didn't like when Sophie went after her then, and she _especially_ didn't like that she had to grab Sophie's arms, pin them behind her back and throw her face first on the bed and hold her there.

"Sophie! Damnit!" Parker yelled at her, holding her down. Sophie struggled, but Parker had her held in such a way that she couldn't move, but it didn't hurt her either. "Is this what you want to be then?! One of those women who got beat so they now think they have to hit everyone else to make their fucking point?! You wanna hit me Sophie, huh?"

She bent down so she was on top of her then, whispering the last, most serious part into it, "I'm not like you, you hit me even once and I walk out that door and you're on your own. Unlike you, I won't look back. I love you, but I will _never_ be abused again, please believe me on that."

"Oh god," Sophie let out in a strangled whisper after a moment of silence as that sunk into her head, and she closed her eyes as she felt the tears well up again. "Oh god, oh god…"

She never thought about her own problem, she never even thought she had one. She had spent most of her life trying to defend herself, even way before Nate. She'd been on her own since after high school, and becoming a grifter was a dangerous skill to learn. She'd found herself in more fucked up positions than she's ever willing to let anyone know, and that attributed a lot to how she saw people when she felt like her life was threatened. It didn't matter who it was, if even a small link connected to her safety being compromised, she felt like she had to fight back. And while it was Parker who had always kept her safe, because they had fell in love, it had also compromised her safety and her life because of Nate. It was screwed up that somewhere she blamed her for it, but it was just the way her head worked.

She had no one to blame for her own abuse but herself though, really. She had asked for it all. She had started it all, because she was the abusive one… she just had a bad habit of trying to take on people that were stronger than her. She was the match that started all of the fires.

"Oh god… I'm so sorry, Parker…" Sophie cried, hating everything about herself right then. She had a fleeting thought that maybe it would be better if Parker left her, threw her to Nate and let him kill her. She'd deserve it, after all.

Parker got off of her slowly, but Sophie didn't move. She just laid on the bed and cried. Parker sighed and looked down at her before running her fingers through Sophie's hair. "Sophie… look, I get it, okay? I used to be just like that…"

"Abusing people you claim to love?" Sophie asks through her tears, still not wanting to look at her. "I doubt that."

"No," Parker said, her voice calmer, trying to relax Sophie just a little bit as she continued to run her fingers through her hair. "No, I've never loved anyone besides you… and Alec, but that was more of a friend love. But I had a really bad anger problem for a long time; it was kind of horrible bad when I was a teenager. I just wanted to hurt everyone around me, make them feel what I used to feel."

Sophie sniffed and wiped at her eyes, feeling all of a sudden so much younger than this women who was twelve years her junior. She turned and looked at her, the woman she loved, and yet was almost a split hair away from losing if she had made the wrong decision, and wiped away the last of her tears. "How did you fix it?" she asked in a whisper, needing to be taught something from Parker for once.

Parker smiled a bit and leaned down, kissing her on her forehead and whispering, "I found another way to make me feel powerful." Sophie sniffed again and looked up at her, her hand reaching up to brush some of Parker's blonde hair away from her face.

"What if I don't know how?" she asked her, her voice breaking a little.

"Then I'll teach you," Parker told her softly with a smile, leaning down to kiss her. She closed her eyes and laid down next to her, kissing her lightly, just needing to somehow turn this incredibly fucked up situation into something a little bit nice. She would be lying if she said that Sophie's apparent problem with starting abuse didn't worry her, but she also knew Sophie wasn't stupid enough to believe she was bluffing when she said she'd walk out that door and never look back. Because she would. It would rip her in half, but she wasn't going to be a victim again.

When they broke, Sophie laid her head on Parker's breast and wrapped and arm around her, not wanting to let her go because she was afraid her herself would be the one to push her away. "I'm sorry about… everything. You've been the only one trying to help me these past couple months. You've been… everything, Parker. I don't want to even think about…" she closed her eyes and sighed a bit. "I just don't want to lose you. Fuck everything up like I always do."

"You don't fuck everything up, Sophie," Parker says, sighing a bit, wrapping her arms around her. "Maybe subconsciously you don't want to be happy, I don't know."

"How is that not the equivalent of 'fucking things up'?" Sophie asked, looking up at her.

"I was trying to make it sound a bit better, okay?" Parker replied with a bit of a smirk. But then she got serious. "I used to think I didn't deserve being happy. I still do sometimes." She shrugged a bit and her grip on Sophie tightened. "But after 'fucking things up' so many times you kinda start to get sick of it, don't you?"

"Yeah…" Sophie said softly. "Yeah, I am sick of it."

"Well then stop fucking up," Parker tells her, like it's that simple. But the funny thing was; it really was just that simple.

There was a knock on the door then and they both turned to look as Hardison walked in. "Heads up, guys. Nate just called to have me look for you, says you 'might be in trouble'," he mocked it with an angry scowl. "Told him I'd look, but I'd give it till tomorrow till he figures out I'm involved." Then he looked at Sophie and Parker all curled up together on his bed and he narrowed his eyes and pointed at them, "Don't make me burn my bed sheets. You two are _so_ sleeping in the guest room. With Eliot."

"With Eliot?" Parker asked, sitting up. She didn't like that plan, that means she couldn't sleep with Sophie naked and do… other naked things.

"Well I only got one guestroom and the thing's got two beds, and apparently Eliot has a _'bad back'_" he mocked it with finger quotes in the air, "so he can't sleep on the couch so… you do the math," Hardison said, looking at them pointedly.

"But then there's three of us in two beds," Parker said, like she was trying to convince him Sophie and her wouldn't sleep together, but Hardison just laughed.

"Nice try."

Parker made a look that clearly indicated she was not happy with that little sleepover arrangement, but stays silent because Hardison was being nice enough to play battered women's shelter this time.

But that still doesn't stop her from saying, "If Eliot snores, I'm gonna tape record it and blast it through your room."

**TBC…**


	19. Fluff

**CHAPTER NINETEEN  
Fluff**

Unfortunately for Hardison, Eliot snored.

So it was also very unfortunate when Parker crept in his room at night, true to her word since she couldn't sleep a wink with how loud Eliot was, held the tape recorder up to his ear, turned up the volume… and pressed play.

Hardison woke up so fast, mumbling incoherent sentences as he was rudely awakened by his slumber, swatting at the offending object. When he opened his eyes and saw Parker he squeaked, "JESUS!" Not expecting someone to be right there next to him, and he jumped up so high that when he came back down he had to steady himself on the bed so as to not fall off of it. "PARKER!"

Parker fell on to the floor laughing, not being able to contain it.

"Damnit girl! What is wrong with you?!" Hardison exclaimed, but took one look at her lying on the ground clutching her sides because she was laughing so hard, and he just rolled his eyes and shook his head. He extended his hand to her. "Come on, get up. If you're lucky I might not kick you for that."

Parker snorted because of how intense her laugher was before she finally subsided and took his hand, getting helped up into his bed. "You deserved that, you know," she told him before settling in next to him. "Eliot snores like a grizzly bear."

Hardison laid down next to her before looking at her funny, "How do you know grizzly bears snore?"

"Well they just look like they would, don't they?" Parker says seriously, and Hardison just blinks and ignores it. If Parker said grizzly bears snored, then hell, far be it for him to correct her. He might have to look that up now; she'd sparked his curiosity on the random subject.

"Don't you think Sophie's gonna flip out if she sees you in bed with me?" Hardison asks, looking over at her pointedly. While the two would still have sleepovers and still share a bed, Sophie seemed like the type to think it meant more than it was, especially in the delicate state she was in. Sophie seemed… the jealous type.

"I'll go back in a bit, I couldn't think in there. My head was ringing from those awful sounds," she tells him and curls up under the covers. "Plus, if I go back in there I'll try to molest her again, and she was very clear that we couldn't have secret sex in front of Eliot because he's not stupid." She smirked, "Though it was funny to watch her squirm a bit, before I got my hand smacked anyway."

"Thanks for that visual," Hardison replied dryly.

"You're welcome," Parker says, like she thought he was being serious. Hardison just rolled his eyes.

"Well come on, since you woke me up let's go get a midnight snack anyway, just in case she does wake up and decides removing my balls would be a fun past time since _you're_ under my covers half dressed," Hardison says and looks at her pointedly. She makes a face but throws the covers off of her.

"Fine, I want Fluff," she tells him as she gets up.

"You mean Peanut Butter and Fluff?" Hardison asks as he climbs out of bed, hoping she did mean it to go on at least something of small nutritional value.

She looks at him like he's crazy, "Why would I want Peanut Butter with it? I want CHOCOLATE." She grins, ear to ear, that kind of grin you don't know if you like or are slightly unnerved by.

"You're never going to get to sleep with all that sugar," he tells her as he follows her into the kitchen.

"I'm not going to sleep with Eliot snoring either so…" she shrugs and goes into his cabinet, knowing where everything is, and gets out a jar of Fluff before she turns to him. "Chocolate?"

"I don't think I have any," he tells her as he goes to the fridge to get himself a sandwich. Hell, if he's up, might as well eat too.

"That's bull, you always have some for smores," she says.

"You ate it all last time!" Hardison exclaims, the turns and points at her. "You're buying me more by the way. And you still owe me Hot Pockets."

"Fine," she says as she gets up on the counter, sitting on it. She grabs a spoon and opens the jar and digs in. Hardison rolls his eyes a bit at her just eating marshmallow goo, but gets a sandwich and closes the fridge before sitting on one of the bar stools. It would be too much to ask for Parker to sit on one, he knows this already.

There's silence for a bit between them while they eat, and then finally Hardison has to ask because he's curious, "So what made her decide to finally leave him?"

Parker twirled the spoon filled with fluff in her hand a bit before popping it in her mouth and mumbling around it, "I didn't want to play 'fantasy world' with her anymore."

"Thought you liked being her knight," he said to her with a smirk before taking another bite of his sandwich.

"Just because it's a fairytale, doesn't mean it can't be real life, Alec," Parker says, looking at him seriously, like she was sick of having to explain that. "In any case," she says, shrugging a bit. "Seems I'm the prince. Eliot is the knight."

"And what am I then?" he asks.

"Um…" she thought for a minute, tapping her spoon to her chin which Hardison decided to not tell her still had fluff on it, because now it was too amusing looking at her with white stuff on her chin.

That sounded a lot dirtier than he meant it to.

"Guess you'd be the pumpkin," she says. "The one that turns into a chariot."

"Great," he says with narrowed eyes. "Glad I'm the inanimate object. You have…" he was going to tell her she had stuff on her chin, but she interrupted.

"The pumpkin has a lot of serious business to attend to!" Parker exclaims, waving her spoon about a bit before pointing it at him. "It keeps the prince and the princess safe."

"You have fluff on your chin."

"I know," she says, and leaves it. He just blinks at her before going back to his sandwich. Well, he tried.

"So why are you the guy? You become butch all of a sudden?" he asks, with a smirk. He tried to picture Parker with a buzz cut with a tool belt on, but that image only made him bust out laughing.

"It's just a fairytale, Hardison," she tells him, like he's being stupid. "There's none about lesbians yet otherwise I would have used that one."

"You're mixing your fairytales all together anyway, might as well add something new," he offers. She finally takes a finger to her chin to wipe away the fluff before sticking it in her mouth as she thinks.

"Yeah, I guess I could. But what would it be called?"

"Does it matter? …Wait, please don't tell me you plan to write a children's book about this," he says, looking at her like that might be the worst plan in the history of any plan. Ever.

"You think I could?" she asks him, suddenly all smiles.

"No," he tells her, and she frowns and flashes her eyes at him. She appreciated his honesty, but sometimes it was just disappointing.

"Well fine then, you can write it."

"I am not going to write a _lesbian fairytale_, Parker," he says with an eyebrow raised. Come on now, she should know that one would probably not go over so well.

"Come on," she prods, kicking her feet a bit in the air as she dips her spoon into the fluff. "You can read it to me and Sophie's children. A story about Mommy and… Mommy. What do two lesbians do with that whole Mom/Mom thing anyway?"

Hardison's eyes go wide. Did Parker just say something that was relevant to the _future? Her_ future? With _Sophie?_

"Don't you think you're moving a bit fast?" he asks her. Parker had always been the one to emphasize slow in a relationship. "Talking about children?"

"I'm doing the_ girl_ thing, Alec," she says with a head waggle like it would emphasize the point a bit better. "Don't girls talk about that? Write people's names in little hearts all over a piece of paper and pretend they have the last name of their lover?"

"Usually with other girls," Hardison says, still looking at her like he wasn't sure who was in front of her at the moment. "And I do mean girls, as in not women. Like as in… twelve year olds."

"Well you're my best friend, and I missed out on being a regular twelve year old thing, so I'm bending the rules," she tells him.

"Who _are_ you?" he asks before blinking a bit. Parker was never… girly. At all.

"Parker Devereaux," she says, thinking about it for a moment, ignoring his actual question. She smiles a bit.

"Okay, now you're scaring me," Hardison says. "And besides, Parker's your last name, _Emily_."

"Shhhh!!" Parker says and gets up, flying off the counter, before clapping a hand over Hardison's mouth. Hardison mumbles something inaudible beneath it. "If she finds out I told you first she's going to _yell."_

Hardison sighed and she took her hand away from his mouth. "Besides," she says, "I don't like that name. I'm just Parker now."

"Right, well, _Parker,"_ he says, emphasizing her name. "Can we stop talking about you and Sophie possible babies now? It's weird."

She sighed and made a little sound of annoyance. "You're no fun. I'm trying to relive my childhood, or whatever they say on TV. Except… fix it a bit."

"Yeah well, don't let Sophie hear you talking that way, might freak her out a bit."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, plopping down on the chair next to him. "I'm done now anyway, it wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be. All it did is make me question how in the hell we would actually have children together. Is that possible yet?"

"I don't think so," Hardison told her. But then he shrugged, "But you never know."

Parker sighed a bit and grabbed the last bit of his sandwich, which emitted a loud protest from Hardison. "All the fluff is making me a bit sick," she says.

Hardison rolled his eyes, meaning more than just the marshmallow goo. "You're telling _me_."

**TBC…**


	20. Repetitive Interruptions

**CHAPTER TWENTY  
Repetitive Interruptions**

When Sophie awoke, Parker wasn't in bed with her. She sleepily mumbled a protest and then automatically covered her ears once she was assaulted by the horrible sounds she was now fully aware of coming from Eliot. She groaned, knowing Parker would never stay in here because of that noise, and rolled out of bed to go look for her. It was still only half-morning, and she poked her head into the living room before smiling a bit as she saw her lying on the couch.

Picking up the blanket that was on top of her, Parker mumbled something in her sleep before Sophie climbed on top of her, laying her head on her shoulder and putting the blanket back around them. She just wanted to sleep with Parker.

"Sophie?" Parker asked sleepily, still not opening her eyes. She wrapped her arms around her and started moving them down her body. When they came to her breasts and Sophie yelped a bit in surprise, Parker smirked, eyes still closed. "Yup, you're Sophie."

"Thanks for that, I wasn't sure for a minute there," Sophie said sarcastically before swatting at her hand. Parker giggled and snuggled her head into Sophie's neck.

"Why are you on top of me?" Parker asked sleepily.

"There isn't enough room to be on the side of you," Sophie told her as she wrapped an arm around her and then teased, "Why? Are you calling me fat?"

"No," Parker says, very serious now. "No, the last time I implied that I got lectured for an hour about how women are always asking for you to lie to them." Sophie giggled.

"Well you learned," Sophie said with a smirk.

"Only out of fear of having to sit through another one of those," Parker replied with a smirk of her own. Sophie swatted at her a bit.

Sophie smiled and closed her eyes again, wanting to just drift back to sleep being in Parker's arms. Parker started caressing her skin softly, first her back, her arms, then wandered down to lightly flutter against her sides. Sophie sighed contently, until Parker's hand wandered down her thigh, then back up to brush over her clit through the thin material of her panties. Sophie gasped softly, "What are you doing?" she asked in a whisper, though it was plainly obvious.

"Mmm…" Parker mumbled sleepily with a smile, eyes still closed. "Touching you."

"We're on Hardison's couch, Parker," Sophie told her, then bit her bottom lip as Parker did it again. She opened her eyes to look at her.

"Yeah, well… I've wanted to touch you for months, I have catching up to do," Parker replied with a smirk as she finally opened her eyes before kissing her softly. Sophie closed her eyes and kissed her back, but moved Parker's hand. Parker made a sound that clearly indicated she did not approve of that plan.

"Not here," she whispered through kisses, but Parker's hand still seemed to have a mind of it's own and slipped under her panties again, pressing against her clit, making her gasp softly.

"Parker…" Sophie let out softly, half in warning, half in encouragement. She spread her legs for her automatically though, lifting her hips. Her brain was saying no, her body however, was very much wanting it.

Parker slid her fingers down a bit and she smirked against her lips, "You're already wet."

"Shut up," Sophie replies, then gasps as Parker slides her now wet fingers over her clit again. "God," she breathed. "Parker we can't…"

But Parker kissed her again, silencing her, and Sophie gasped softly before pushing her hips against her hand as her own hand came down to run down Parker's body. She slipped her fingers under Parker's panties automatically, and Parker gasped hard against her lips.

"Don't make me burn my couch," came a voice that was suddenly very much in the same room as them, and Sophie jumped up in surprise, but got tangled in the blanket on top of them and fell off the couch, taking Parker with her.

"Ow," Parker said in sleepy annoyance at being on the floor yet again. Sophie had turned bright red though, knowing Hardison witnessed some of that. She buried her face in Parker's neck, just wanting to die. "Why do I keep getting interrupted when I try to have sex with my own girlfriend?" Parker complains, feeling like she hasn't been able to really have sex with her for days because of all the interruptions. It wasn't fair.

"Because you're on other people's furniture," Hardison says, shielding his eyes from the two half dressed women that were tangled up on his floor.

"I was on my own bed once!" Parker complains loudly, and Sophie mumbles something that sounds like a very embarrassed 'Shut up, please.'

Hardison just rolls his eyes at her and says, "I'm going to make breakfast, you two can wake up Eliot."

"And get murdered?" Parker asks, looking at him like he's crazy. "No, thank you."

"Parker," Sophie mumbles into her neck. "Clothes, please." She still didn't want to look at Hardison.

"They're in the bedroom," Parker says, like she doesn't get what she's talking about.

"Get my clothes, _please_," Sophie stresses, not wanting to walk around with her very see though underwear in front of Hardison. Parker's weren't transparent, so she got the job of getting them.

"They're just over there," Parker said, pointing, still not getting it.

"_Now_," Sophie stresses. It's no longer a request, more of a demand. Parker rolls her eyes but untangles herself from the blankets and Sophie before getting up. Sophie picked herself up off the floor, wrapping the blankets tight around her so no one saw anything of what she was wearing at the moment.

But then by whatever stretch of the imagination Parker thought it would be okay to do anything like this in front of other people, she then brought her fingers up to her lips and licked them, cleaning Sophie off of them.

"Parker!" Sophie exclaimed, horrified she would do that in front of Hardison.

"What?" she asks, not getting it. "They were sticky."

"Okay me and you," Hardison said, pointing at her seriously. "We're about to have a _strong_ talk about what you think you need to share with the rest of the class. Because… I so didn't need to see that," he finished, shuddering a bit before turning and walking into the kitchen like he might be scarred a little bit because of that.

Sophie was mortified. She hid under the covers.

But then she almost jumped out of her skin when she heard Parker yell very loudly, "ELIOT WAKE UP!" before running out of the room with Sophie's clothes and jumping on top of her, so as to be out of the line of attack if it came.

"Ow, Parker, that was my rib!" Sophie complained.

"Sorry," Parker replied, though it was more automatic than an actual apology. "Here, clothes." She handed them to her.

Then Eliot, a half awake and very grumpy Eliot, came out into the living room and gave Parker the most evil look Sophie thinks she had ever seen anyone give anyone. Ever. "I was _this_ close," he warned with a low scruffy morning voice as he pinched his fingers together. "To murdering you, I swear to god, Parker."

Parker just giggled and threw the comforter over her and Sophie, hiding under it. Sophie made a sound of complaint because she couldn't get dressed this way. "Hardison told me to!" she exclaimed from under the blanket.

"_Hardison," _Eliot warned, and there was a clank of dishes in the kitchen before a scurrying of feet down the hall, the opposite way of where Eliot was. "Hardison!" Eliot calls after him before running down the hall after him.

Both Parker and Sophie giggle when they hear a thump and Hardison crying out, "Okay! Okay! I'm sorry!" Then he is pulled out of the bedroom by Eliot in a head lock. Parker and Sophie take one look at that and bust out laughing even harder, and Hardison looks annoyed.

"Parker, never listen to me again. Ever," he says, and Eliot smirks.

"Come on pretty boy, what's say I make breakfast so it doesn't suck?" Eliot replies as he drag him into the kitchen, the whole time Hardison protesting loudly.

"Okay, get off of me Parker," Sophie says with the smile as she gently nudges her.

"Nope," Parker says with a devious smirk.

"I need to get dressed," Sophie tries to explain, but Parker just shakes her head.

"No you don't, I like the way you are now."

"Parker…" Sophie warns, putting up her finger to try to stop what was forthcoming, but it was futile. Parker pushed her down against the couch, her lips going to her neck. Sophie closed her eyes and gasped softly, her arms coming up to wrap around Parker's neck. "They're in the other room!" Sophie exclaimed softly, but her hips were already moving against Parker's thigh, still turned on from last time.

"Then be very _very_ quiet," Parker says with a smirk before she brings two fingers up to her lips before slipping them inside very seductively, making Sophie's breath catch in her throat before Parker slid them down her body and underneath her panties again.

Sophie took a sharp inhale of breath and grabbed on to Parker's back, her eyes closing as Parker slipped her fingers inside of her. "Oh god," she breathed out, knowing that for so many reasons they shouldn't be doing this right now, but it really didn't matter anymore.

Parker started moving her fingers in her slowly, and Sophie's hand wandered down Parker's body before she cupped Parker roughly, making her gasp hard as she pressed against her clit. A little too hard, a little too loudly.

"GUYS!" came the voice in the other room again. "I was serious! Don't make me burn my couch!"

Parker let out a frustrated sound and took her fingers out of Sophie. "This isn't _fair!"_

**TBC…**


	21. Nightmare's End

**CHAPTER TWENTY ONE  
Nightmare's End**

It was half past eleven when there was a knock on Hardison's door. Sophie gasped so loud Parker clapped a hand over her mouth to silence her. The four of them were on the living room, and they all just looked at each other. Sophie's breathing started to pick up significantly so Parker took her hand away so she wouldn't smother her, but put a finger to her lips. Sophie just nodded mutely.

It went from the four of them happy, laughing, and joking one minute, to most of them being scared. Not Eliot though, Eliot just got angry. "I got this," he said in a low voice, but Hardison stopped him for a second.

"My house, let me answer the door," he whispers. Eliot nods, and then motions for Parker and Sophie to go into Hardison's bedroom. Parker looked absolutely infuriated that she was supposed to go hide, but Eliot made an over dramatic point to the door and Parker stalked off with Sophie behind her.

Parker didn't want to just hide from Nate. She wanted to do something about it; Sophie was her girlfriend after all. But Eliot didn't want them in the way; he didn't want them to get hurt. He was just trying to protect them, even though Parker was convinced she could have handled all of this by herself the first time if she hadn't have gotten stoned.

Hardison went to open the door. Nate had his hands in his pockets, looking at the ground for a bit as he tried to seem casual, but even Hardison caught the sneer. "Find them yet?"

"Yeah," Hardison said, his voice even, looking at Nate like he disgusted him. "Yeah I found them."

"Well?" Nate asked, looking up at him, but then noticed the way Hardison was looking at him. The alcohol was heavy on his breath as he went on, "Oh come on Hardison… you don't believe all that shit do you? Sophie's a pathological liar and Parker… she's just insane."

"Go fuck yourself, Nate. You're disgusting," Hardison said as he backed up away from his foul breath, and Nate's eyes flashed before he took his hand out of his pocket, and pointed something in Hardison's ribs. Hardison's eyes go wide.

"Look, this doesn't concern you. Give me the girls, I know they're here. They must be here. You do that… and everything can go right back to normal. I'm not going to hurt them, I promise. Just wanna talk." The gun was pressing hard against Hardison's ribs, and he winced. Right, leave it to Nate to try to convince someone he doesn't want to hurt anyone while having a gun.

"You see, now this is why I don't like guns."

Nate looked up at the second voice just in time to see Eliot before he was punched in the face, staggering back a few steps. That was Hardison's cue to pitch in, but after the first punch, the second he was grabbed by Nate… and then the gun went off in the struggle.

"Oh god!" Sophie cried as she ran back into the room with Parker behind her, fearing Nate had hurt someone. Parker stepped in front of her automatically and looked around. No one had been hurt; the gun just went off and hit one of the cabinets.

But Eliot had knocked Nate back again, and Nate in his drunken stupor was no match for him even if he was sober. Especially when he saw Parker and Sophie, Parker in front of her like she was trying to protect her, and he just growled at Sophie, "I'll kill you." The temporary distraction was long enough for Eliot to elbow him in the face, smashing his nose. The blood poured freely as he slumped to the ground, unconscious for the moment.

Sophie's chest was rising and falling quickly, and she held on to Parker's hand in a death grip as she looked at Nate. "You didn't…?" she asked Eliot softly.

"He'll live," Eliot said, like he regretted it. He pushed the hair out of his face.

"What do we do with him?" Parker asked, and came over to him carefully before nudging him with the toe of her shoe to make sure he was really out. He was.

"This is gonna be such a bitch to clean up," Hardison said, looking at the blood on his floor.

"Seriously Hardison?" Eliot asked and looked at him like he was an idiot for caring about his floor at the moment.

"I was just saying."

"We can dump him somewhere," Parker suggests, looking at him.

"Parker!" Sophie protests, finding that completely inhuman.

"No no, I mean like a rehab… or maybe a loony bin," she says.

"Parker's right," Hardison said. "We dump… then we leave town. He might find us eventually, but if he's smart and hopefully sober by then he won't. I mean, we'd still have Eliot."

Eliot looked down at the unconscious Nate and scowled. "Fine, Hardison help me get him up."

Three days later the four were assembled in a hotel suite in Florida, waiting for the next flight out to Europe. Hardison and Eliot shared a room, much to Hardison's dismay about the snoring, and Parker and Sophie shared another. Parker looked up from the bed as she saw Sophie go over to the window and wrap her arms around herself while she was looking out of it.

"You alright?" Parker asked her.

"Is this nightmare really over?" she asked her in a quiet voice as she looked out into the night sky. She swallowed a bit then sighed as she shrugged. "I mean, _really _over?"

"I don't know," Parker said, honestly. She didn't know if Nate would come back. He was obsessive, controlling… and Sophie had gotten away.

"Right," Sophie said softly and looked down. "Course not."

"Hey," Parker said softly as she got up and came behind her, wrapping her arms around the other woman's waist and putting her chin on her shoulder. "It is for now, okay?"

"I can't help but think… but for how long?" Sophie whispered, pursing her lips then turning around in Parker's arms to face her. "How long before I fuck it up again?"

"Sophie," Parker said seriously. "Don't say that. We're gonna be okay. Just stop thinking like that and you'll be fine."

"You don't understand Parker…" Sophie said, biting her lower lip softly. "I get so angry about all these stupid little things and I just wanna…"

"I told you what happens if you do," Parker tells her, seriously. "So really it's down to if you want to keep me or not."

"I do," Sophie says as she looks up, her eyes locking with the thief's. "You know I do, but I'm just…"

"No buts," Parker said, and put a finger to her lips. "It's a black and white situation."

Sophie just nodded slowly, and Parker took her finger away. "Sophie I love you, so don't fuck that up, okay?"

Sophie laughed a bit softly at Parker's choice of words, but then nodded again. "Okay," she whispered, and then smiled a bit.

"GOD DAMNIT HARDISON! That was MY fruit roll up! Did you not clearly see the name 'Eliot' written on it?!"

Parker and Sophie looked at each other with the same expression, 'Oh no.' They left their bedroom and went into the kitchen where Eliot was looking accusingly at Hardison who was on the couch, feet propped up, half the fruit roll up out of his mouth.

"What? I'm dyslexic, I thought it said my name," Hardison said, looking at him innocently.

"DYSLEXIA DOESN'T CHANGE THE NAME, HARDISON!"

"You guys act like you don't have millions of dollars. I mean really, what is it with all of you?" Sophie asks, looking between the three of them.

"I don't like to spend money," Parker says, while Eliot says, "It's the damn principle of the thing!" while Hardison just shrugged.

"Bloody hell. Eliot, just buy another box. And can you stop yelling? We have neighbors you know," Sophie said before walking back into the room.

Both boys just looked at Parker. She held up her hands and whispered while making obscene hand gestures, "I keep trying to get that stick out, but it won't budge."

"PARKER!"

Parker made an 'oops' face, Sophie clearly heard her. She scuttled back into the bedroom behind her and Hardison made a face. "I really didn't want the visual to go along with those hand motions."

Eliot smirked, "I did."

**TBC…**


	22. The Princess and The Pea

**CHAPTER TWENTY TWO  
The Princess and the Pea**

"Stop talking about my ass and whatever you think is invading it to the boys," Sophie told her sternly, hands on her hips.

"Okay," Parker said, looking sheepish for a minute. She pursed her lips and rocked on the balls of her feet before her lips curled up into a small smile.

"Oh don't get cute with me, that doesn't work, you know," Sophie said, her hands coming from her hips to fold over her chest to make her point better.

"I'm not getting cute," Parker said innocently, far too innocently. Sophie could almost see one of those cartoon halos floating around her head… with the horns sticking out beneath them.

Sophie narrowed her eyes at her girlfriend. "I mean it," she warned, before pointing.

"Mhm," Parker said, nodding along with wide eyes. Sophie just sighed exasperated and fell on to the bed, hating that Parker really could get out of anything by looking adorable. But then something hurt so she uttered, "Ouch!" and rolled off the offending area.

"What?" Parker asked, cute act gone. She had gotten away with it after all. She looked at where Sophie was laying. "There isn't anything there."

"I felt something!" Sophie insisted, and dug under the covers. Still no luck. Sighing in frustration she lifted the mattress a bit and stuck her hand in there before pulling out a marble. "Oh for the love of Christ, do they not clean these things?" she asked as she threw the marble across the floor, aggravated.

"Sophie!" Parker exclaimed, her eyes wide. "That's the proof!"

"Proof of what?" Sophie asked as she got back up to sit on the bed, looking at the thief confused.

"That this is a fairytale!" Parker exclaimed and went to go pick up the marble from off the floor, making Sophie try very hard to not roll her eyes at that. Parker ran back over and jumped on the bed, making Sophie let out a sound of 'Oof!' from the impact, but Parker just held it up to her. "See?"

"What are you on about?" Sophie asked, still not seeing the relevance to a marble and a fairytale.

"The Princess and the Pea!" Parker exclaimed with a smile. She waved the marble more. "See?"

"I see a marble, not a pea," Sophie said. Parker narrowed her eyes.

"It's like the same thing. You're a real princess, Sophie," she said, and then smiled wide. Sophie could do nothing else but smile at the girl, captivated by her innocence and sweetness, and didn't want to use logic to ruin that. Maybe she was her princess after all, marble or not.

Before the group retired to bed that night, Sophie was in the bathroom getting washed up, and Parker stood in front of the television to get the boy's attention, which emitted a lot of protests.

"I want to see what happens!" Eliot complained, with made Hardison smirk at his corruption.

"Dr. Who will still be there in a second, now listen to me, seriously," Parker said, putting her hands on her hips. Eliot scowled but pressed pause on the DVR.

"What?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest. This had better be quick.

"I am going to have sex with Sophie tonight," she announced, with made Hardison do a face palm and Eliot smirk. "And we've been interrupted for the last million times we've tried so if either of you… _either of you_," she stressed. "Fuck this up for me, I am going to tell each of your next girlfriends that you have STDs, clear?"

"So watching is out then?" Eliot asked, which made Hardison smack him with the back of his hand on his chest. Eliot glared.

"No watching, no interrupting, no commenting. She gets weird when she thinks you two are lurking, I don't know why."

"We're not perverts!" Hardison exclaimed, offended.

"Speak for yourself," Eliot muttered.

Parker just rolled her eyes. "I'm going to bed now. _Don't fuck it up for me_," she finished dangerously before walking off into her and Sophie's room.

Sophie was still in the washroom, so while she waited she closed the door and started to undress. Because hell, there was no way she wasn't about to get laid now. It's been days. Between the interruptions and then the moving… it had been hard. She laid down on the bed once she was nude and started picking at the bed sheets, starting to get impatient. She had been in there for a long time.

Getting up, her feet carried her over to the bathroom they shared and she opened the door. Sophie was in the shower, but that wasn't what she was surprised by. She knew Sophie took long as hell showers. No, what surprised her was the faint sounds she could hear beneath the loud drum of the water against the acrylic base.

Sophie was breathing heavily, moaning slightly as she was whispering Parker's name. Parker smirked.

Oh, this was too good.

She snuck over to the shower, leaning against the wall so she could see what was going on from the slight area the shower curtain left uncovered. Sophie was leaning against the wall, eyes closed, her fingers moving with skilled precision against her clit. "Oh god, Parker…" she moaned out softly.

"How many times do I have to tell you that you need to stop with this masturbation habit of yours?" Parker asked, smirking even more now.

Sophie jumped half way out of her skin, which made Parker giggle a bit. "Parker?!"

"Who do you think?" she asked with a smirk before she pulled away the shower curtain and stepping inside, the water from the shower beating against her back. "You know…" she said softly as she pressed herself up against Sophie, who was pinned to the shower wall now. "I don't know why you feel like you have to just think about me while you're doing yourself, when I'm right here."

"I didn't think that here we—" Sophie started, breathless, but was interrupted.

"Just stop thinking, Sophie," Parker tells her, before her lips met the grifter's. Sophie moaned softly and wrapped her arms around the blonde, knowing that the sounds of the shower would mask them from prying ears if need be.

Parker bit Sophie's lower lip softly as her hands slid lower down Sophie's soaked body, sliding down ever curve, over every inch of tanned skin. Sophie was already so close, but she knew it was futile to even beg Parker, because the next thing she'd know Parker would somehow make it so she wouldn't be able to move or something equally as disappointing. She wanted to move, she wanted to feel every inch of Parker against her.

"Jesus," Sophie whispered as Parker started to tease her nipples gently, but not like they needed any more coaxing. She gasped as her own hands ran down Parker to grab her backside, pulling her closer to her as Parker moaned hard against Sophie's lips, vibrating her tongue just a little bit.

"Fuck, I can't do this slow…" Parker gasped out as her hand found it's way between their two bodies, needing to touch Sophie for so long now that the need was overwhelming her.

"Good," Sophie gasped out, before moaning hard and digging her nails into Parker's back as Parker slipped a couple fingers inside of her. She couldn't wait either, it had been only four days, but it felt like forever. Her lips crashed back onto Parker's as her own hand made a path through their bodies, pressing up hard against the thief's clit, making her gasp hard and almost lose her footing in the slick tub.

"Don't make me fall," Parker gasped out against her lips as she sped up the pace of her fingers, her breathing coming out in short bursts before she closed her eyes tight and let out this half gasp, half scream, as Sophie pressed down harder, rubbing her in all the right, but very intense ways.

"I won't… I promise…" Sophie panted out against her lips, then screamed as Parker hit the right spot in side of her, and she slammed her head up against the tile wall. But it didn't hurt, she could barely feel it. She pushed her hips harder against Parker's hand and cried out, "Fuck! Parker! _YES!"_ Sophie was far from caring who heard at this point.

"Tell me you love me," Parker gasped out against her lips, then bit her lip to keep from crying out from what Sophie was doing to her.

"I… I love you… Parker—FUCK!" Sophie screamed again as she clenched deep inside, stilling her body, pressing up against Parker's own clit so hard in the perfect way that Parker gasped before Sophie came, screaming Parker's names and words not even invented yet as she rode out the wave.

She didn't even wait for her head to stop spinning, she just went to work against Parker's clit in tight, hard, fast circles, making Parker's knees buckle as she slammed her hand against the wall to try to steady herself as she started to fall. "Oh god!" she screamed as it was her turn to tumble off the edge. Her knees gave way however, and Sophie scrambled to hold her up, but the two just came crashing down into the tub, Parker on top of Sophie.

"Ow… shit…" Sophie said, out of formality than anything else because she still couldn't feel it. She just closed her eyes and breathed heavily, until Parker moved her head and she got sprayed face first with water. "Fuck," she sputtered as she moved to get up, and Parker giggled.

The two climbed out of the tub, leaving the water still running because they were still so out of breath. They both collapsed on the floor, soaking wet and feeling infinite. "Shower sex is romantic, right?" Parker asked, smirking a bit. She knew Sophie was all for romance.

"Probably would have been a bit better if we didn't fall and get sprayed in the face with water," Sophie replied, laying her head on Parker's chest, giggling a bit.

"Yeah well, no one's perfect," Parker said with a smirk as she wrapped her arms around the woman she loved.

"That's not true," Sophie said softly before looking up at Parker and pressing her lips lightly against the blonde. "You are," she whispered, before smiling.

Because to her, she was.

**THE END**


End file.
